Works

THE WORKS

OF THE

RIGHT REVEREND JOSEPH HALL, D. D.

BISHOP OF EXETER AND AFTERWARDS OF NORWICH.

REVISED AND CORRECTED, WITH SOME ADDITIONS,

BY

PHILIP WYNTER, D. D.

PRESIDENT OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD.

VOL. III.

fi

OXFORD:

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
MDCCC.LXIII.

CONTENTS.

Page

A Paraphrase upon the Hard Texts ot the whole Divine Scrip
ture . I — 612

TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY MONARCH,

C H A R L E S,

BY THE GRACE OF GOD KING OF GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND
IRELAND, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH.

MOST GRACIOUS AND DUEAD SOVEREIGN :

NOTHING can so much concern a man to seek for as life eternal.
The only means to find this eternal life is the knowledge of God.
There is no means to know God to purpose but by his Word.
This word, though plain and clear in the main truths, yet wants
not some difficulties in other expressions. The explication of
these difficulties is, for a great part, the occasion and matter of
our sermons, lectures, commentaries ; every man holding it both
an high honour and an happy service to be God's trucheman to the
world. The clearest and shortest way of explication is by para
phrase. Many learned interpreters, both of our church and the
Roman, have undertaken this task by parcels ; the use and bene
fit whereof is, and should no less be, universal.

My meanness hath therefore boldly endeavoured this great
work; which, as I durst not undergo without the aid of the best
commenters both ancient and modern, so I do in all humility
subject it to the grave and holy judgment of this renowned
church. It is so far from my thoughts, peremptorily to prescribe
senses unto any, as that I am ready upon better information to
amend my own errors : only my desire and ambition is, to give
some light to weaker apprehensions ; wherein I hope to do a ser
vice not utterly unbeseeming your Majesty's gracious patronage,
and unspeakably beneficial to many thousands of souls, who shall
bless God for the least glimpses of illumination in these Divine
Oracles.

The work, such as it is, I most humbly cast down, with myself,
at your Majesty's feet ; for who but God's vicegerent upon earth

VI THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

could seem proper to challenge the protection of a business so
highly importing the honour of the God of heaven ; and amongst
kings, besides the relation of a sovereign Master, who but the
Defender of that true Faith which is infallibly grounded upon
these holy Scriptures : eminent no less in goodness and piety
than in greatness and power; the great pattern of devotion,
twice every day, even in public view, constantly busied in this
book of God ? In so many names I have presumed, through
your Majesty's royal hands, to tender it unto God's church, not
without the vows of my most fervent prayers to God, for the
enlargements of his blessings upon your sacred person, family,
government; as who am ever justly obliged to be

Your Majesty's most loyal

And faithfully devoted servant,

JOS. EXON.

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

READER,

I CANNOT be so weak as not to presuppose that so great and
bold a work must needs undergo variety of constructions. There
will not want some, I doubt not, who will be of opinion that this
labour might have been better spared, as thinking the Scriptures
to lie already too open to vulgar hands ; with whom it is not now
seasonable to argue that beaten question, concerning the expedi
ence of the free allowance of God's Book to laic readers; wherein
the church of England, our dear and blessed mother, hath suffi
ciently declared her judgment, besides words, by her ingenuous
practice. Only therefore taking this liberty for granted, I shall
easily from hence evince the usefulness of some such plain and
orthodox explication. For, since the Scriptures are through the
liberal blessing of God promiscuously allowed to all hands, I ask
whether it be not much better they should be put into the way
of being rightly understood by the simplest, than to lie under the
danger of an ignorant misconstruction. Neither do I hereby
endeavour to make them more common, but better conceived,
that where the letter is in use the sense may not be mistaken.
The inconveniences that are pretended to have followed upon the
open and free permission of Scriptures in vulgar languages have
sensibly arisen from the misunderstanding of them. Remove
that peril, and the frequence and universality of them can be no
other than a blessing. This service I have here endeavoured to
perform ; having commonly, in the passages of this work, trod
in the steps as I have judged of the best interpretations; and
seldom when, gone alone. Neither do I offer to obtrude these
my explications upon any reader as magisterial and peremptory.
Who am I, that I should take upon me to govern and command
other men's thoughts ? but modestly and humbly propound them
to God's church, as probable helps to weaker judgments; leaving
my reader free, in the meantime, if my sense satisfy not, to his
own further disquisition : only, since all men have not choice of

Vlll TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

commenters, nor leisure to compare them, nor skill to judge of
the fairest sense, I have undertaken this pains for the ease and
advantage of my plain reader, to cull out and commend unto him
the most safe and likely interpretations. In the historical part
he shall need little help ; in the poetical or sapiential, more ;
in the prophetical, most of all, in many passages whereof every
line is a riddle. I should be vain to brag of my fidelity herein ;
as who have not knowingly omitted any clause wherein there
seemed to be any show of difficulty, nor clogged the volume with
glosses that I conceived unnecessary.

Some perhaps Avill imagine it might have been much better to
have taken the whole text before me, than to have thus selected
some noted periods of harder construction ; who may be pleased
to consider how much vastness might so have accrued to this
labour, and how little use. To paraphrase easy texts had been
to set up a candle before the sun ; and to publish the whole text,
with a partial explication, if leave might possibly have been ob
tained for so bold a project, had been to raise the bulk and to
lose the vigour and benefit of the work; since there be some
historical books of Scripture wherein there is very little use of
any paraphrase, and some, as those of the Chronicles, wherein
there is none at all. Herein therefore I have done that which I
judged to avail most to the use and profit of my Christian reader,
whom I must suppose furnished with a Bible at home, and willing
to help his understanding in places of more obscurity.

To foremention the particularities of that benefit which may
arise to God's church in the use of so plain an enarration of the
meaning of his Holy Spirit, were both to distrust the judgment
of others, and to seem to set forth the glory of my own endea
vours ; the infirmities whereof, if they may receive pardon from
God and my superiors, and amendment from more able hands, to
whose aid and correction I do humbly submit myself and them, it
shall be the utmost of my aim and ambition.

That good God, who hath so graciously enabled me, notwith
standing the throng of other occasions, to go through with this
well meant work, bless it to the behoof of his Church, and the
glory of his own Name. Amen.

A PARAPHRASE

UPON

THE HARD TEXTS

OF

THE WHOLE DIVINE SCKIPTURE.

GENESIS.

1. 1. " IN the beginning God created the heaven and the earth3*."]
— In the beginning of time, God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
made of nothing the whole great and goodly frame of the world ;
both the heaven and the earth, and the other elements, with all
the furniture and inhabitants of them all.

2. "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness
was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters."] — Yet not all together, and at once,
nor in this perfect form, at first, wherein we now see them ; but
by leisure and degrees; for both the earth and elements, in
their first being, were a rude and confused heap, by him newly
created without any matter preceding, or without any fashionable
shape at all ; it being not distinguished, fashioned, beautified, as
afterward : neither had this vast mass of water and earth inter
mingled, as yet, any light, either for distinction or ornament ; but
even in this their confusion, the Holy Spirit, the preserver of all
creatures, upheld, cherished, and gave fit succour to this imperfect
beginning of all things.

3. " And God said, Let there be light : and there was light."]—
Then God willed, and in this point brought his eternal decree to

a [The passages of Scripture are in edition of 1633, but never, I believe,

some instances extended beyond the beyond the verse in which they oc-

length in which they appear in the cur.]

BP. HALL, VOL. III. B

2 PARAPHRASE UPON

execution, that there should be light ; not of the sun, or stars,
which were not yet created; but a common brightness only to
distinguish the time, and to remedy that former confused dark
ness ; and it was accordingly made.

4. " And God saw the light, that it was good : and God divided
the light from the darkness."] — And God approved this light, by
him created, to be of excellent and necessary use ; and established
it, by his allowance, as fit to continue, and to be interchanged with
darkness.

5. " And God called the light Day,, and the darkness he called
Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."] —
And God set to either of them their due times and courses ; ap
pointing that the light should serve for day, darkness for night,
and that man afterwards should so call them ; and so was the first
natural day, consisting of evening and morning, fully finished.

6. " And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of
the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."] — Then
God willed that there should be a large, clear, airy distance be
twixt those upper waters which are gathered into clouds, and
these below.

7. "And God made the firmament, and divided the waters
which were under the firmament, from the waters which were
above the firmament : and it was so."] — Therefore God caused
this large extent of air to spread itself high and wide ; and
thereby made a separation betwixt those airy and these lower
earthly waters : and it was done.

8. " And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening
and the morning were the second day."] — And this dilated air, as
also that above, he taught man, after to call Heaven ; and esta
blished the due use and course thereof; and thus was the second
natural day, consisting of evening and morning, finished.

9. " And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered
together unto one place, and let the dry land appear : and it
was so."] — Further, God willed that these lower waters should be
gathered into one common place of receipt ; and that the dry
land, which was till now covered over therewith, should appear :
and it was so done.

10. " And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering
together of the waters called he Seas : and God saw that it ivas
good."] — And God taught to call this dry land, according to the
nature of it, earth ; and the common receptacle of waters, seas :

GENESIS I. 4-15. 3

and God allowed this second day's work also, as of necessary and
excellent use for his purposed creatures.

Ji. " And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb
yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind,
whose seed is in itself, upon the earth : and it was so."] — Then
God willed that by his immediate power, even before the sun was
created, the earth should bring forth all manner of vegetables ;
both those that do voluntarily sprout up, and those which do since
require the art and labour of man : all buds, blossoms, herbs, trees,
which both may and do bear fruit according to their kind ; and
whose fruit by his appointment containeth in it the seed of their
own kinds : and it was so done.

12. " And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding
seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in
itself, after his kind : and God saw that it was good."] — And the
earth brought forth, as God commanded her, all manner of vege
tables, in very great variety, according to the several kinds ; both
of herbs that yield their own seed as the means of their future
increase, and all trees that bear fruit, and whose fruit by his ap
pointment containeth in it the seed of their own kind : and God
allowed them as of necessary and excellent use, and established
the benefits thereof to his future creatures.

13. " And the evening and the morning were the third day."] —
And thus was the third natural day, consisting of morning and
evening, also finished.

14. "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of
the heaven to divide the day from the night ; and let them be for
signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:"] — And God
further willed, that in the highest part of the air, which we call
heaven, there should be made the stars, which are so many glo
rious lights, in the firmament ; partly, to make a perpetual and
constant division betwixt day and night ; and partly, to be certain
and natural signs for man's direction in his course of judgment
and practice, for sowing, planting, sailing, and such other common
affairs ; and partly, to make a distinction of seasons : summer,
winter, spring, harvest, autumn, years, months, weeks, days, hours.

15. " And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven
to give light upon the earth ; and it was so."] — Lastly, which is
their chiefest use, he willed that they should serve to give lively
heat and light, from those high places wherein he set them, to his
creatures here upon earth : and it was so done.

B 2

4 PARAPHRASE UPON

16. " And God made two great lights ; the greater light to rule
the day, and the lesser light to rule the night : he made the stars
also."] — And now God made, amongst the rest, two great lights
greater than the rest, not in body but in glory ; the greater to
rule the day ; to which purpose he gathered into it all that light
which hitherto was diffused through the air : the lesser, together
with the other smaller stars, to rule the night.

17. "And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give
light upon the earth."] — Thus God, I say, made these heavenly
lights, and placed them in the highest part of the air, that they
might the better give light to the earth.

1 8. "And to rule over the day and over the night, and to
divide the light from the darkness : and God saw that it ivas
good."] — And that they might interchangeably govern the day
and night, and distinguish the light from the darkness, the dawn
ing and twilight from the clear day : and God allowed them, as of
excellent and necessary use for his other creatures.

19. " And the evening and the morning were the fourth day."]
— So the fourth natural day, consisting of morning and evening,
was fully finished.

20. " And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly
the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above
the earth in the open firmament of heaven."] — Now that God had
thus made fit room and place for his creatures, he willed that they
should, in their several ranks and orders, be framed ; and first, as
the least perfect, he decreed, that the waters should abundantly
bring forth all swimming and creeping things proper to itself, that
have life ; and that of the lighter and more airy part thereof
should be made all kinds of fowls that fly upon the earth and
waters in the open space of the air.

21. " And God created great whales, and every living creature
that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after
their kind, and every Avinged fowl after his kind : and God saw
that it was good."] — Then God, of the same element, made the
mighty whales, whirlpools, and all other those huge and strange
forms of creatures ; and all kind of fishes, that live and move in
the waters, he framed of the same matter, in great variety and
abundance, according to their kinds; and every flying fowl ac
cording to his kind : and God allowed them to be of excellent use.

22. "And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply,
and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth."]

GENESIS I. 16-26.

— Then God gave a real and sensible blessing unto them ;
and decreeing, by an everlasting Law, that these watery creatures
should naturally multiply themselves by generation, in an especial
manner and measure, so as they should plentifully store both the
sea and rivers ; and that the fowls also should, by a natural form
of generation, multiply their numbers and successions upon earth.

23. "And the evening and the morning were the fifth day."]
— So the fifth natural day, consisting of morning and evening, was
fully finished.

24. " And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living crea
ture after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the
earth after his kind : and it was so/'] — Furthermore, God ap
pointed that, of the earth, by his almighty power, should be made
all other living things, according to their kinds : all cattle that
should be for more familiar use to man ; all those creeping things
which live and move in and upon the earth ; and those wild beasts
of the forest which live apart from the sight and service of man ;
each of them according to his nature and kind : and it was so done.

25. ' ' And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and
cattle after their kind, and every thing that crecpeth upon the
earth after his kind : and God saw that it was good."] — And
God accordingly made the wild beast of the field, according to his
kind ; and all those creeping things which move in and upon the
earth, according to their several kind ; and the tamer cattle ac
cording to their kind : and God allowed their use, as commodious
and necessary.

26. " And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."] —
Then God, when all helps and ornaments were thus prepared,
decreed, and after a Divine manner consulted with himself, the
Father with the Son and Holy Spirit, concerning the creation of
his chief creature, Man ; as it were to this effect : We have made
our several creatures, in great variety ; having given to them
being, life, sense, and motion : but now, let us make that creature
for whose sake the rest have been created ; consisting, as of a
material body, wherein he shall partake with other creatures in
being, life, sense, and motion ; so also, of a spiritual nature and
substance, wherein he shall be like to us ; being indued, as with all
the faculties of a reasonable soul, so also with perfect knowledge,

6 PARAPHRASE UPON

holiness, righteousness : and let them have dominion over all the
creatures, over the fishes of the sea, and over the fowls of the air,
and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creep
ing thing that creepeth on the earth.

27. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of
God created he him; male and female created he them."] — So
God accordingly created man after his own image, both in respect
of his spiritual soul and of this integrity, and holiness, and right
eousness, wherewith he was indued : ho created them in both
sexes, both male and female; forming the male of the matter of
earth, and the female afterwards of the male.

28. "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruit
ful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it : and have
dominion over the fish of the sea."] — And God gave a special
blessing unto them ; and said, Be ye, through that power of pro
pagation which I give you, fruitful ; and multiply, and replenish
the earth with your seed ; and be ye possessors and rulers of the
earth, &c.

29. "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bear
ing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree."]
— And God said, Behold, as I have made you, and given you life,
so am I careful to provide and grant you fit sustenance for the
continuance of that life, which I have given you : take ye liberty
therefore to eat of every plant that groweth upon the earth, whe
ther herb or tree, &c.

II. i . " Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all
the host of them."] — Thus were the heavens, and the earth, and
sea, and all the hosts of heaven, both the angels and stars, and all
the furniture of the earth and water, both plants and beasts and
birds and fishes, finished by the mighty power of God, in the
space of six days.

2. " And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had
made ; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which
he had made."] — And, on the seventh day, God having finished
the great work of his creation, ceased from any further act of this
kind ; rejoicing in the view of his glorious, workmanship ; and
never since ceasing to preserve, order, and govern that world
Avhich he then created.

3. " And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it : be
cause that in it he had rested from all his work which God created
and made."] — And thereupon God gave a special blessing to the

GENESIS I. 27-29. II. 1-9. 7

seventh day : and honoured it with this privilege, that it should
be a day set apart to rest and holiness ; that so, by this means,
men might be put in mind of the wonderful work of his creation,
and might celebrate that rest of their Creator.

4. " These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth
when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the
earth and the heavens."] — This is the story, or just report, of the
making of the heavens and the earth, in that beginning of time
wherein the Lord God, who hath eternal being in himself, gave a
being to the earth and the heavens ;

5. " And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and
every herb of the field before it grew : for the LORD God had not
caused it to rain upon the earth, and there ivas not a man to till
the ground."] — And to every plant of the field, when as before it
had no being in the earth ; and to every herb, that had not as
yet been, nor could have been, as by any natural means : for there
had been as yet no rain, which is the ordinary means of fruitful-
ness, sent down from God upon the earth : neither was there any
man as yet to till the ground, and by his industry and art to draw
forth any fruit therefrom.

6. " But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the
whole face of the ground.""] — Only God caused a mist or vapour
to rise up from the earth, arid to fall down again upon the whole
face of the ground ; whereby the earth was watered, and the fruits
thereof refreshed, till he thought good to send the ordinary and
natural helps of her fruitfulness.

7. "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became
a living soul."] — And the Lord God formed the body of man of
the mould of the ground, and inspired and animated him with a
living and reasonable spirit, which is immortal, immaterial, separ
able from the body : and so man, consisting of body and soul,
became a perfect creature, indued with life and reason, and such
qualities and motions as were fit to proceed from both.

8. "And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden;
and there he put the man whom he had formed."] — And the
Lord God planted an orchard and garden of pleasure in the
eastern tract of that goodly and fruitful country of Eden, and
there he put the man whom he had formed.

9. " And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every
tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food ; the tree of

8 PARAPHRASE UPON

life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of
good and evil."] — And the Lord God furnished and adorned that
garden with all variety of goodly and pleasant plants, that might
be delectable either to the eye or to the taste, or wholesome for
nourishment; and, amongst the rest, caused to grow there that
flourishing and sacramental Tree of Life ; which, as it had virtue
to preserve the natural life, so served to signify both that eternal
life of glory and blessedness in heaven, and the only author of
that eternal life, Jesus Christ; and therewith also, that fatal
Tree of Knowledge, the eating whereof should cause man, who
before knew only good, to have a woful knowledge and experi
ence of evil.

10. " And a river went out of Eden to water the garden ; and
from thence it was parted, and became into four heads."] — And,
for the commodity of the place, God had so seated it, as that a
river came down out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence
it parted itself into four several streams.

n." The name of the first is Pison : that is it which compass-
eth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold ; "] — The first
is that channel of Euphrates which is called Pischon, which wash-
eth upon the land which afterward took the name of Havilah, one
of the grandchildren of Eber, where there is gold :

12. "And the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium*
and the onyx stone."] — And the gold of that land, as likewise of
his brother Ophir's, is very pure and fine ; and there is store of
rich gums or pearls, and precious stones.

13. "And the name of the second river is Gihon : the same is
it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia."] — The name of the
second stream or channel is Gihon, which floweth along by desert
Arabia ; the inheritance afterwards of Gush, the son of Cham.

14. "And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it
which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river
is Euphrates."] — The name of the third stream is Hiddekel,
or Tigris, which floweth eastward to Assyria: and the fourth,
retaining the appellation of the whole main river, is called Eu
phrates.

15. "And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the
garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it."] — Then the Lord took
man from the place where he was created, and placed him in this

a [" This gum resin comes from Arabia, and is supposed to be the produce
of a species of Amyris." — Thomson's Chemistry.^

GENESIS II. 10-20. 9

goodly paradise of Eden : not that he should be idle, and there
spend his time in vain pleasure, but that he might sow, plant,
prune, keep and dress it ; not in any toiling or afflicting labour,
but only for his voluntary and delightful exercise.

1 6. "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of
every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:"] — And God
prescribed man a law for his diet, to this effect ; Thou seest with
what plenty and delicacy of fruit I have stored this garden for
thee ; all which, I leave to thy free choice and full liberty : feed
on whichsoever thou likest :

17. "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it : for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die."] — Only one tree there is, which, for the trial of
thy obedience, I forbid thee and thine to taste of ; the tree of ex
perience of good and evil : so termed in regard of the event ;
for so soon as ever thou eatest the fruit thereof, thou shalt surely
be in the state of mortality, and shalt sensibly feel evident proofs
of thy frailty ; and, besides this bodily death, thy transgression of
this my commandment shall be punished, if I should deal with thee
in the rigour of my justice, with the separation of thy body and
soul from my presence for ever.

1 8. "And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man
should be alone ; I will make him an help meet for him."] — Now
before this time, even in the sixth day, the Lord had thus deter
mined concerning man ; It is neither so comfortable an estate, nor
fit for the natural propagation of mankind, that the man should
live alone, in one only sex : I will make him an helper, of his own
nature, meet for him in both regards.

19. "And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast
of the field, and every fowl of the air ; and brought them unto
Adam to see what he would call them : and whatsoever Adam
called every living creature, that was the name thereof."] — For,
when the Lord had formed of the earth every beast of the field
and every fowl of the air, of their own fit matter, and had brought
them to man, who was their lord, to acknowledge his sovereignty,
and to receive from him their names ; for howsoever Adam, out
of the knowledge of their several nature, thought good to call
them, so was their names :

20. " And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of
the air, and to every beast of the field ; but for Adam there was
not found an help meet for him."]— And when Adam had given

10 PARAPHRASE UPON

fit names to all the creatures ; to all the tamer sort of cattle,
all the fowls of the air, all wild beasts ; all this while, among so
great choice, Adam found not a meet helper of his own nature
and form, with whom he might converse for comfort and gene
ration.

21. " And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam,
and he slept : and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh
instead thereof;"] — Wherefore the Lord God had cast man into
a deep sleep or ecstacy, that he might not be sensible of what he
suffered ; and while he thus slept, he took out one of his ribs from
his side, and closed up the breach with flesh in the room thereof :

22. " And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man,
made he a woman, and brought her unto the man."] — And of this
rib thus taken from Adam God framed the woman in a most
comely proportion, and brought her thus framed immediately to
Adam, as a fit match to join with him.

23. " And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh
of my flesh : she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out
of Man."] — Then Adam, lovingly and cheerfully receiving her,
gladly acknowledged : This indeed is she whom I sought among
all the creatures, and found not : now have I obtained of the Lord
a fit helper for me ; for lo, this is not only of the same nature,
but, as I well see, of the same flesh, blood, and bone, with myself.
She shall be therefore called Woman, because she is taken out of
the Man ; that as she received her substance from me, so she may
take her name also.

24. " Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother,
and shall cleave unto his wife : and they shall be one flesh."] —
Seeing therefore such was the creation of woman, and the first
institution of marriage ; it is the everlasting will of God that there
shall be an entire and loving conjunction betwixt the man and
wife : and whether in their habitation, if occasion so require, or
whether in the danger of the dissolution of this bond, the man
shall rather leave father and mother, and his duty to them in this
case, for his wife, than neglect her due satisfaction ; and they two
shall be so nearly knit together both in body and mind, that they
shall be but as one flesh, like as at their first creation.

25. "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and
were not ashamed."] — And such was the purity, simplicity, and
perfection of their minds and bodies, as that both Adam and his
wife were naked ; and found not this estate cither unwholesome

GENESIS IL 21-25. III. 1—6. H

or unhoncst, or uncomely ; for as yet there was no lust in them
which might breed their shame either before God or themselves.

III. i . " Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of
the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the
woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the
garden?"] — Now the serpent was by nature more subtle than
any beast of the field which God had made ; and therefore the
fitter to be employed as an instrument of Satan to betray mankind.
Him therefore did Satan make choice of, and in him thus spake,
in a double sense, to the woman, as the weaker vessel : Is it so,
indeed, that God hath forbidden you to eat of any tree of the
garden ?

2. " And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the
fruit of the trees of the garden :"] — And the woman said unto the
serpent, We have free liberty given us to eat indifferently of the
fruit of the trees of the garden, in great variety of diet :

3. "But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye
touch it, lest ye die."] — Only from one tree in the midst of the
garden hath God restrained us ; and hath charged us, Ye shall
not eat of that one tree, nor touch it, upon pain of death.

4. " And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely
die:"] — Then the serpent said to the woman, Tush, there is a
farther matter in this prohibition ; fear not, there is no danger of
dying any death at all :

5. " For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good
and evil."] — But herein God rather envies your further felicity;
for he well knows, on the contrary, that whensoever ye shall eat
of that fruit, the eyes of your understanding, which are now half
shut, shall be fully opened, and ye shall be full of divine know
ledge, like your Maker ; for, as the name of that tree may inform
you, whereas now you know by halves only that which is good,
then you shall know evil also.

6. "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for
food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be de
sired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat,
and gave also unto her husband with her ; and he did eat."] — So
the woman, being won by Satan, to fix her eyes upon that fruit ;
and being persuaded that it was like, by the outward show of it,
to be fit for use ; and finding it to be exceeding pleasant to sight ;

12 PARAPHRASE UPON

and hearing it to be a fruit of such admirable benefit, for the
obtaining of further knowledge ; took thereof, and did eat it ; and
because she would have her husband partaker with her of such
happiness, she commended it to him ; and he, seduced by her, did
eat of it also.

7. "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew
that they ivere naked ; and they sewed fig leaves together, and
made themselves aprons."] — Then the eyes of their understanding
were opened indeed, as Satan had foretold, to discern between
the good which they had lost, and the evil into which they were
fallen; opened therefore to their own misery and shame; for
now the impurity of their minds caused them to see and acknow
ledge the deformity of their bodies, which, before their sin, were
no other than comely ; to the hiding whereof they fastened toge
ther fig leaves, and made themselves a cover for those parts wherein
now their corrupted nature told them their chief shame lay.

8. "And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day : and Adam and his wife hid them
selves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of
the garden."] — And now, after the conscience of their sin, God,
who is the judge and revenger of it, gave some sensible tokens of
his presence, about that time when the heat of the day was
abated, in the garden; and therefore Adam and his wife, who
had wont to delight in the presence of their God, now ran away
to hide themselves among the thickets of trees from the sight
of him.

9. "And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him,
Where art thou V — But God, from whom he could not be hid,
audibly called him forth ; and said unto him, in the person of
both, Adam, where art thou ?

10. "And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was
afraid, because I was naked ; and I hid myself."] — Who answered,
I heard thy voice in the garden, and was afraid of thy Majesty ;
and, in regard of myself, I saw that my nakedness had in it
shame and deformity ; therefore I hid myself.

11. "And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast
thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou
shouldest not eat ?" — Then God said, Thou hast heretofore ap
peared before me boldly, and not complained of thy nakedness ;
Avhence therefore is thy shame and conscience of deformity ?
It is a wrong cause which thou pretcndcst : thine own mouth

GENESIS III. 7-16. 13

evinceth thee as guilty of the breach of my law ; speak out there
fore more plainly against thyself. Hast thou not eaten of that
fruit, whereof alone I charged thee, upon so fearful a pain, that
thou shouldest not eat ?

12. "And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be
with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did cat."] — Then Adam,
still desiring to put off the blame from himself, said. It is true, I
have eaten indeed ; but the fault was not so much mine ; for, lo,
the woman, which was of thine own choosing and giving, she
drew me to this sin ; which of myself I should not have easily
yielded to.

13. "And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this
that thou hast done ? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled
me, and I did eat."] — And the Lord God said unto the woman ;
How is it that thou hast committed so heinous a crime, both to
eat thyself, and to draw thy husband into sin with thee? And
the woman said, Alas ! Lord, how did I think that any of thy
creatures would have thus betrayed us? behold, the serpent, a
creature of thine own making, beguiled me with false promises,
and induced me, in simplicity, to eat of it.

14. " And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou
hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every
beast of the field ; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt
thou eat all the days of thy life."] — Then God, not examining
any further, began to pronounce sentence upon the serpent ; and
said, Because thou hast been used as an instrument to destroy
mankind, thou shalt be most execrable and detestable above all
either cattle or wild beast ; and, whereas thou didst, lift up thy
self to deceive the woman, now thou shalt for ever crawl upon
thy belly, in an ugly and horrible fashion; and as thou hast
brought man back again to the dust, so thou shalt eat the dust
of the earth while thou livest.

1 6. " Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sor
row and thy conception ; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth chil
dren ; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule
over thee."] — Unto the woman, which was the next instrument
of this sin, God said, I will greatly increase those sorrows which
are proper to thy sex, and those especially which shall follow
upon thy conceptions. And whereas thou shouldest have had
children born without sin and born without pain, now, seeing
thou hast sought too much unlawful pleasure, thou shalt, in much

14 PARAPHRASE UPON

anguish and sore throes of travail, bring forth children ; and as
thou hast won thy husband, in this ne wact, to follow thee, so
for ever thine appetite shall be subject to thy husband, and
curbed by him at pleasure, and he shall with more command
and inequality rule over thee in all thine actions.

17. "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened
unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I
commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it : cursed is the
ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days
of thy life ;"] — Also to Adam he said, Because thou hast yielded
to the evil persuasions of thy wife and not to me, and hast eaten
of that tree whereof alone I so deeply charged thee not to eat ;
behold, that earth, which I made and fitted for thy use, shall
now, because of thy sin, be accursed to thee, with barrenness and
evil fruit; with much toil and pain shalt thou procure and eat
the fruit thereof all the days of thy life :

18. " Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee ; and
thou shalt eat the herb of the field ; "] — And when thou hast done
thy best to it, it shall deceive thy hope ; and, instead of wholesome
grain, shall yield thee thorns and thistles : and thou, that hast
thus pleased thy taste, shalt no more eat of the pleasant fruit of
this garden ; but shalt be fain to take up with the herbs and fruit
of the field elsewhere.

19. " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou
return unto the ground ; for out of it wast thou taken : for dust
thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."] — And not only with
vexation of mind, but with wearisome and extreme labour of
body shalt thou procure thy sustenance ; and that not for some
short time, but till thou return to the earth : for, what proud
conceit and hope soever the serpent put into thee of not dying, I
tell thee, that, as of the dust of the earth thou wert formed, so
now thou art in the state of certain mortality, and to dust shalt
thou return.

20. "And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was
the mother of all living."] — And Adam, now looking for that
perpetuity in his seed which he saw he could not have in himself,
called his wife's name Hevah, because she was and should be the
mother of all living men ; the posterity whereof he saw would be
large and manifold.

21. " Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LOBD God make
coats of skins, and clothed them."] — And God the Lord, partly

GENESIS 111.17-24. IV. 4. 15

for wholesoraeness of body, and partly to put them in mind of
their corruption which had made nakedness shameful, prepared
skins for Adam and Eve ; and taught them both to fashion those
skins into garments whereby their whole bodies might be covered,
and also to put them on.

22. " And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as
one of us, to know good and evil : and now, lest he put forth his
hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for
ever :"] — Then the Lord God, upbraiding man with his folly,
said; See now how well Satan hath performed his promise to
man : is he not, think you, become like one of us ? hath he not
gained a goodly meausre of knowledge, both of good and evil?
and now heed must be taken lest he should further profane
the sacrament of that other tree of life ; and double his sin, by
hoping as vainly to obtain an eternal life by the fruit thereof, as
he hoped for the perfection of knowledge by the other.

23. " Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden
of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken."] — There
fore the Lord forced man to go forth of the garden of pleasure,
as being unworthy to abide in so goodly a place any more ; and
set him to till the other baser earth, whence he was taken.

24. " So he drove out the man ; and he placed at the east of
the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned
every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.""] — And when
God had thus, in disgrace, cast man out of paradise, that he might
utterly cut off all hope of his return, he placed on the east side of
Eden, where the entrance was, angels with flaming swords, con
tinually shaken, to be guarders thereof; which, until the defac
ing thereof by the flood, duly kept it from all possibility of re-
entering ; as in regard of the whole garden, so especially of the
tree of life, which God would not have touched by man in this
estate of his corruption.

IV. i. "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived,
and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD."]
—Then Adam, after his banishment out of paradise, had carnal
knowledge of Evah his wife; which conceived and bare a son,
whom she, acknowledging the performance of God's promise and
blessing, called Cain, that is, possession ; because, said she, I have
obtained a man, even after my fall, by the gift of the Lord.

4. " And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock
and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and

16 PARAPHRASE UPON

to his offering."] — And Abel also himself brought of the first
fruits of his flock, and of the fattest and best of them, with a
faithful and cheerful heart ; and the Lord showed, by some visible
testimony, that he did graciously accept both Abel's person and
offering.

5. "And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell."] —
And Cain was exceedingly moved with anger and envy against
God and his brother; and bewrayed extreme discontentment in
his countenance, which was now churlish and dejected.

7. "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted ? and if thou
dost not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his
desire, and thou shalt rule over him."] — If thou do well, and offer
in faith, is there any doubt but thou shalt be accepted as well as
thy brother ? but if thou do amiss, both the conscience of thy sin
shall be ever ready to afflict and torment thee, and the due revenge
of sin shall continually wait upon thee : and, as for thy brother,
there is no cause of heart-burning towards him ; for, both by
nature and his own will, he is subject unto thee, and thou, as the
elder brother, mayest command him.

9. "Am I my brother's keeper?"] — Am I to wait upon my
younger brother, or should not he rather attend upon me ? Why
shouldest thou ask an account of him from me ?

10. "And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy
brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground."] — Again God
said, What villany is this that thou hast done ? Behold, how
silent soever thou be in the confession of thy sin, the blood of thy
brother, which thou hast shed, cries loud in my ears out of the
earth for vengeance against thee.

u. "And now art thou cursed from the earth, which, &c."] —
Now, therefore, cursed be thou, both in thy pains which thou
bestowest upon the ground, and in thy flight from this earth
which hath, &c.

12. "When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth
yield unto thee her strength ; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou
be in the earth."] — And wheresoever thou shalt bestow thy pains
in tilling the ground, it shall not henceforth yield thee her wonted
increase ; neither shalt thou be able to settle thyself any where :
for thine unquiet conscience shall not suffer thee to rest, but shall
drive thee from place to place, so as thou shalt be a miserable
vagabond and runagate in the earth.

13. "And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater

GENESIS IV. 5-24. 17

than 1 can bear."] — Then Cain said unto the Lord, Alas, how
shall I abide this curse? The punishment which thou inflictest
upon me is intolerable.

14. " Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of
the earth ; and from thy face shall I be hid ; and I shall be a
fugitive and a vagabond in the earth ; and it shall come to pass,
that every one that findeth me shall slay me."] — For, behold, thou
castest me out of this earth, and out of thy protection and grace,
wherein alone is all safet}r ; and I, driven with the horrors of my
own conscience, shall be a vagrant and runagate upon earth, I
know not whither ; and whosoever findeth me, though of mine
own loins, shall kill me, as I have done my brother.

15. " And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth
Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD

o

set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him."] —
Then the Lord said unto him, Fear not this danger of thy death.
I would have it the chief part of thy punishment to live long and
miserable, for fearful example unto others : whosoever therefore
shall kill Cain, though so bloody a murderer, he shall be punished
by many degrees more severely than Cain himself for the blood
of his brother. And God set a visible and conspicuous mark
upon the body of Cain, that whosoever met him might hereby be
warned not to lay hands upon him, notwithstanding his just desert
of death.

1 6. " And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and
dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden."] — Then Cain was
shut out from the protection of God, and that place where were
visible signs of God's presence and means of his worship ; and
dwelt, after his uncertain and wandering manner, in that land
which was afterwards, from its aberration, called the land of Nod,
toward the east side of Eden.

23. "And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear
my voice ; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech : for I
have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt."]
— And Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah : What tell you
me of any dangers and fears ? Hear my voice, 0 ye faint-hearted
wives of Lamech, and hearken unto my speech ; I pass not of the
strength of any adversary : for I know my own valour and power
to revenge ; if any man give me but a wound or a stroke, though
he be never so young and lusty, I can and will kill him dead.

24. " If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy

BP. HALL, VOL. III. C

18 PARAPHRASE UPON

and sevenfold."] — And if the murderer of Cain shall find it
avenged upon him sevenfold, how then shall the violence offered
to Lamech escape the revenge of seventy times sevenfold ?

26. "Then began men to call upon the name of the LORD."] —
Then, after all the dissoluteness and profaneness of Cain's poste
rity, men began to gather themselves into congregations for
public service of God, and to make open and solemn profession of
religion.

V. i. "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the
day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him."]
— This is the roll or catalogue of the generations of Adam. In
that sixth day, wherein God created man, he made him after his
own image, in holiness and righteousness.

3. "And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and be
gat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his
name Seth."] — And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, when,
in the ordinary course of generation, he begot a son, in the same
state of corruption and mortality wherein himself was after his
fall; and he called his name Seth.

24. " And Enoch walked with God : and he was not ; for God
took him."] — And Enoch acknowledged the Lord in all his ways,
and studied in all his life to approve himself to God, having his
affections and conversation above : therefore he had no more being
upon earth : for God took him from amongst men, and in no ordi
nary manner translated both his body and soul into his glory.

29. "And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall
comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of
the ground which the LORD hath cursed."] — And called his name
Noah ; because of the consolation which should arise from that
rest which the world should enjoy through him : saying, whether
by revelation from God, or upon the confidence of his good hope,
This same shall, by the blessing wherewith his justice shall be re
warded, comfort us concerning that toil and sorrow which our
sins have procured ; and this earth, which the Lord hath cursed
for our iniquities, shall, through his holiness and integrity, in some
measure recover her strength and yield due increase.

VI. i . " And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on
the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them."] —
So when the world began to be much peopled, both of men and
women,

2. " That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they

GENESIS IV. 26.— VI. 14. 19

were fair ; and they took them wives of all which they chose."] —
Then even the professors of religion of the seed of the rio-hteous
Seth and Enoch saw the daughters of the profane and godless
generation of Cain and Lamecb, that they were fair; and being
overtaken with their beauty, yielded so much to their lust, that,
without all respect had to religion and godliness, they matched
themselves carelessly in marriage with them.

3. " And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with
man, for that he also is flesh : yet his days shall be an hundred
and twenty years."] — Therefore the Lord decreed thus with him
self: I have used means enow to have reclaimed the world from
their wickedness : I have taught, admonished, threatened them :
all this prevails not. I will no more strive with the perverseness
of man in this kind ; for when I have all done, they are still but
carnal : I will therefore set him a stint of years before his common
destruction. Unless, therefore, within an hundred and twenty years
he repent him of his sins, I will then surely destroy him.

4. " There were giants in the earth in those days ; and also
after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of
men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty
men which were of old, men of renown."] — In those days were
men monstrous both in stature and conditions ; and not the pa
rents only, but their children : for after that the seed of the right
eous had thus lawlessly joined themselves with the daughters of
the wicked, and they had borne them children, even these also
were men of the same hugeness and disposition, which were in
those past ages much spoken of for their strength and tyranny.

6. "And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the
earth, and it grieved him at his heart. "] — Then God, like as a
man that repenteth him of his work, purposeth to undo that which
he hath wrought, by the effect seemed to our weakness as if he
repented him of man's creation, in that he now determined to de
stroy him whom he had made, and now was both grievously dis
pleased with their sins, and yet loath to revenge.

i j. "The earth also was corrupt before God," &c.] — Then, not
only the men, but the very earth itself, was defiled with their
abominations in the presence of God.

14. "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou
make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch."]
— Make thee, by the help of workmen, an ark of the tallest pine
or cedar trees, framed and planed for that purpose : thou shalt

o 2

20 PARAPHRASE UPON

make many several partitions in the ark, and shalt cause it to be
pitched within and without.

15. "And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The
length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it
fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits."] — And this shall
be the proportion wherein thou shalt make it ; the length thereof
shall be three hundred of the largest cubits, such as the tall
stature of men in thy age affordeth ; and the breadth fifty of the
same cubits, so as the length may be six times the breadth and
ten times the height.

1 6. "A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit
shalt thou finish it above ; and the door of the ark shalt thou set
in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt
thou make it."] — Thou shalt make a clear light of windows in the
ark ; and in the space of a cubit above them shall be the rising
of the roof thereof: the door of the ark shalt thou make in the
one side thereof, not in either of the ends ; and thou shalt frame
it in three lofts or floors, one above another.

VII. i. " And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy
house into the ark ; for thee have I seen righteous before me in
this generation."] — Now, when an hundred and twenty years after
that first warning given to Noah were expired, the Lord said to
Noah, Enter thou and all thine house into the ark, for thee only
have I found, in this corrupt and depraved age, free from the
common infection of wickedness, and sincere-hearted towards me.

2. "Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens,
the male and his female : and of beasts that are not clean by
two, the male and his female."] — Of every clean beast, whereof
there shall be great use for meat and sacrifice, shalt thou take
unto thee seven, of each kind ; the one half whereof shall be male,
the other, which is the greater half, female: all which shall by
pairs come unto thee, as I formerly promised, being sent by
instinct from me for their preservation; but of unclean beasts,
whereof there is less use, thou shalt take but only a couple of
each, the male and his female.

11. "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second
month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all
the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of
heaven were opened."] — In the end of the six hundredth year of
Noah's life, in the second month of the spring, the seventeenth
day of the month, even in that same day, began the issues of the

GENESIS VI. 15— VIII. 5. 2i

lower waters, which are gathered within the earth, to gush forth
above their banks ; and those which God had bound in the clouds
of heaven to pour down vehemently, like as if some full vessels
were been at once cast out of the windows of the air.

16. "And the LORD shut him in, &c."] — And the Lord, by
whose instinct all these creatures were brought thither, when all
were entered which he meant to preserve, closed up the door fast
and sure, that he might be safe from the waters.

24. "And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred
and fifty days."] — And the waters violently overwhelmed all the
whole earth, (counting from the beginning of those forty days
wherein the rain fell, unto the end of an hundred and fifty days,)
for the full space of five months.

VIII. T. " And God remembered Noah, and every living thing,
and all the cattle that ivas with him in the ark : and God made a wind
to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged;"] — Then God,
who cannot forget his mercy to his, showed by the effect to Noah
that he remembered him, and for his sake all the wild beasts and
tame cattle that were with him in the ark ; therefore God, by his
immediate power, caused an extraordinary drying or driving wind
to pass about the earth, thus covered with waters, and the fury
of the waters began by little and little to decrease :

2. " The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven
were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;"] — And
God made way for the channels of the earth to receive in the
waters which they had sent forth, and shut up the lower waters
into their former receptacles, and closed up the passages of the
clouds above, and so the fall of the rain was restrained when it
had continued forty days and nights :

3. " And after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters
were abated."] — And after the end of the hundred and fiftieth
day from the beginning of the flood the waters sensibly abated.

4. " And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seven
teenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat."] — And
in the seventh month, and in the seventeenth day of the month,
the ark, which had hitherto floated uncertainly, and was carried
up by the force of the waves that it could feel no ground, now, in
the ebbing of the waters, stayed upon one of the high mountains
of Ararat, the ledge whereof passeth along from Armenia east
ward towards India.

5. "And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month :

22 PARAPHRASE UPON

in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops
of the mountains seen."] — And from this resting of the ark, in
the space of seventy-three days, which was till the first day of
the tenth month, the waters so far abated that the tops of the
mountains were seen.

6. " And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah
opened the window of the ark which he had made :"] — And forty
days after the first of the tenth month, which fell upon the ele
venth day of the eleventh month, Noah opened one of the windows
of the ark which he had made :

7. "And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro,
until the waters were dried up from off the earth/'] — And he let
forth a raven, (because that fowl was of a good scent, and used to
feed on carcases, which might be found lying upon the mountains,)
thereby to have perfect knowledge of the decrease of the waters ;
which continued fluttering up and down to and fro, not far from
the ark, till the waters were dried up upon the earth.

8. " Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters
were abated from off the face of the ground."] — Again, since he
could have no information hereof by the raven, about seven days
after he sent out a dove from him ; a bird that was both more
tame and domestical, and which was wont to seek her food in the
plains ; that, by this second messenger, he might see if the earth
were yet lightened of her burden of waters.

9. " For the waters were on the face of the whole earth."] —
For the waters were still over all that part of the earth where he
should have rested, and still covered all the plains.

13. " And Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked,
and, behold, the face of the ground was dry."] — And Noah re
moved some part of the roof of the ark, that he might look round
about him ; and viewing it, found that the upper part of the
ground, even of the plains, appeared dry, that is, not covered
over with waters ; though still soft and moorish with the conti
nuance of that former moisture, that it was not yet fit for habit
ation.

14. " And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day
of the month, was the earth dried."] — And in the second month, in
the twenty-seventh day of the month, which was a year and ten
days after the beginning of the flood, was the earth fully dry, and
firm, and habitable again.

20. " And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD ; and took of

GENESIS VIII. 6.— IX. 2. 23

every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offer
ings on the altar."] — Then Noah, moved thereto by the godly
example of his forefathers, and by warrant from God, built an
altar to the Lord ; and took of every clean beast, and of every
clean fowl, one, (for God had appointed him one odd of each of
these for this purpose,) and partly for expiation, partly in token
of his thankfulness, offered them, as a burnt offering consumed to
ashes unto God, for preservation of them and all their fellow
creatures.

21." And the LORD smelled a sweet savour ; and the LORD said
in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's
sake ; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth ;
neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have
done."] — And the Lord, who was before offended with mankind,
now was pacified toward the remainder of them : and pleased gra
ciously to accept this obedience of Noah ; and as he had eternally
decreed, so he uttered his counsel to Noah, I will not from hence
forth send any more such general curse upon the earth for man's
sake ; for I see, that if I should judge him according to his deserts,
I should every day bring upon him a new deluge, for behold, all
the thoughts and the whole fashion of man's heart is altogether
evil, even from his infancy : my mercy therefore shall exalt itself
above his sins ; neither will I any more smite all li ving things, as
I have now done, with an universal destruction.

22. " While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and
cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall
not cease."] — Hereafter, the course and use of the seasons of the
year, the harvest, the spring, winter, and summer ; and their
tempers of heat and cold, and the differences of the night and
day, (which now, in the thick and gloomy darkness, could not well
be observed.) shall no more generally cease over all the whole
earth at once, so long as the earth remaineth in this state.

IX. 2. " And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be
upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air,
upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes
of the sea ; into your hand are they delivered."] — The outward
privileges of your first creation I do now, though imperfectly,
renew to you ; let the fear and dread of you be planted naturally
in every beast of the earth, whether tame or wild, and in every
fowl of the air, and generally in all that treadeth upon the earth,
and in all the fishes of the sea : all these, my will is, shall be sub-

^4 PARAPHRASE UPON

ject to your pleasure and command ; and that, as by you and for
you they were preserved, so they shall accordingly serve to your
use.

3. " Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you ;
even as the green herb have I given you all things."] — Yea, in
respect of your diet, I do now, whether give or renew unto you,
more ample privileges ; for now, sith that the strength of all herbs
and plants is decreased with the deluge, I allow you every thing
that moveth and liveth to be meat for you ; of all which you will
wisely make choice for yourselves, of those creatures which are
wholesome and fit : even as freely do I now allow you to eat thereof,
as I formerly did allow the green herb for them and you ; so do I
now allow them unto you.

4. " But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof,
shall ye not eat."] — But so do I give you the liberty to eat of
the flesh of all other creatures, as that you abstain from eating the
blood of them ; whether with the flesh, or severed from it ; whether
they be alive or dead ; for in the blood is the seat of life, which
cannot without cruelty be devoured.

5. " And surely your blood of your lives will I require ; at the
hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man ; at
the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man."]
— Further, know ye that I have great respect as to the eating, so
to the spilling of blood, wherein the vital spirits are seated ; but
especially of man, which is my principal creature ; and so do detest
cruelty in shedding his blood, that if a very brute beast shall be
guilty of this fact, I will have his blood shed again for it ; much
more will I have this satisfaction from a neighbour or brother for
the life of a man.

6. " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be
shed: for in the image of God made he man."] — AVhosoever
sheddeth man's blood, unless by lawful authority from God, his
blood shall be shed again ; for in his own image hath God made
man ; some remnants whereof there are still in our depravcdness :
therefore follows it, that both a man may not shed his brother's
blood, and that the magistrates in God's name may and must re
venge it.

13. " I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token
of a covenant between me and the earth."] — I will and ordain,
that the rainbow, which you have seen appear in the watery
cloud, shall be from henceforth set apart for the sign of a cove-

GENESIS IX. 3-27. 25

nant made on my part betwixt me and the earth, of never drown
ing it again ; which may the more fitly represent thus much unto
you, for that it naturally is wont to foresignif'y the ceasing of the
rain by the appearance thereof.

15. " And I will remember my covenant, which is between me
and you and every living creature of all flesh ; and the waters
shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh."] — You shall
then know, by this sign, that I remember my purpose of never
drowning the world, &c.

20. " And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a
vineyard :"] — And Noah began again, according to his former
trade, to exercise himself in tilling the earth ; and of those vines
which were found here and there sprouting out of the earth, he,
with much industry, planted a whole vineyard ; and by this means
devised the use of wine.

21." And he drank of the wine, and was drunken ; and he
was uncovered within his tent."] — And he drank of that his wine ;
and whether through ignorance or weakness, was drunk there
with ; insomuch that, forgetting himself and all shame and come
liness, he lay immodestly uncovered, and that openly in the floor
of his tent.

22. " And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of
his father, and told his two brethren without."] — And when
Cham, the youngest son of Noah, had unnaturally sported him
self in gazing upon his father's nakedness, he told his two bre
thren without that they might also take part with him in this
wicked derision of their father.

24. " And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his
younger son had done unto him."] — Then Noah awoke from his
wine ; and, by inquiry upon occasion of his sons' garment which
he found upon him, knew what his youngest son had done
unto him.

25. " And he said, Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants
shall he be unto his brethren."] — And in the spirit of prophecy
said, The sin of Cham is so great, that the punishment of it shall
not rest in him alone, but shall be derived to his posterity : even
Canaan's son, amongst the rest, shall be accursed ; he shall be in
most slavish servitude, even to his own brethren.

27. " God shall enlarge (or persuade) Japheth, and he shall
dwell in the tents of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant."]
— God shall persuade the posterity of Japheth, by the voice of his

26 PARAPHRASE UPON

word, to come home into the bosom of the true Church; and
Canaan's issue shall be servants unto theirs.

X. 8. " And Cush begat Nimrod : he began to be a mighty one
in the earth."] — And Cush begat Nimrod, who began to usurp much
rule, and by oppression to enlarge the bounds of his dominions.

9. " He was a mighty hunter before the LOBD : wherefore it is
said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD."] —
He was a cruel tyrant, both in his usurpation, and in the manner
of his government ; without all awe of God or care of men ;
wherefore it is ever since grown into a proverb, As great a tyrant
as Nimrod.

XI. i. " And the whole earth was of one language, and of one
speech."] — Then, all the men upon the whole earth had but one
common language, and one fashion of speech.

2. " And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that
they found a plain in the land of Shinar ; and they dwelt there."]
— And as they spread themselves from that eastern mountainous
country, where the ark first stayed, they found a large and fruit
ful plain, since called Shinar, now Mesopotamia, and there they
settled their abode.

3. " And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick,
and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and
slime had they for morter."] — And some years after they had
there well seated themselves, they said one to another, Come, let
us make brick, and burn it in the fire. So they had brick for
stone, the fittest matter that this fat plain would afford for build
ing ; and a cleaving pitchy slime, which that soil yieldeth, instead
of morter.

4. " And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower,
whose top may reach unto heaven ; and let us make us a name,
lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth/'] —
Then Nimrod, as their ringleader, and the rest of his followers,
said thus in consultation among themselves, Go to, let us build us
a large city, and a tower therein, of an exceeding height ; partly,
that we may make ourselves famous ; and partly, that we may
unite our power and society, and prevent the danger of being
dispersed one from another.

5. " And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower,
which the children of men builded."] — But the Lord, who is
every where and seeth all things, to speak of him after the man
ner of men, as if he should come down and look upon the city

GENESIS X. 8.— XII. la. 27

and tower which these vain men in the pride of their hearts
had begun to build, so took notice of what they did and meant
to do.

6. " And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they
have all one language ; and this they begin to do : and now
nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined
to do."] — And the Lord decreed thus with himself; Behold the
people is one in heart, joining together in one common resolution
of this work ; and they all have one language, that they may the
better perform it ; and this they have, through our permission,
begun and proceeded to do ; and noAv nothing appears which may
stop them in all that vain project they have imagined to them
selves.

7. " Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language,
that they may not understand one another's speech."] — Come, let
us, as if we should go down amongst them, so from heaven cause
their languages to be confounded, &c.

XII. 2. "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will
bless thee, and make thy name great ; and thou shalt be a bless
ing:''] — Thou shalt lose nothing by the change; for, instead of
a small kindled which thou shalt leave, I will cause thee to be
the father of a great and populous nation : and I will prosper
thee both outwardly and spiritually, and make thy name famous
and reverend ; and thou shalt be ever mentioned in the form of
all blessings :

3. "And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.'"] —
And in and by that holy seed, the Messiah, which shall come of
thy loins, all the people of the earth shall be blessed.

11. "And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter
into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know
that thou art a fair woman to look upon."] — And when he drew
near to enter into Egypt, in his infirmity, consulting with flesh and
blood, he said to Sarai his wife, Behold now, while I look upon
the southern women, and compare them with thee, thy colour and
complexion is much more beautiful than theirs.

1 2. " Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall
see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife : and they will kill
me, but they will save thee alive."] — Therefore it will, I fear,
come to pass that the Egyptians, making no conscience of their
ways, but being altogether led by their lust, when they see thee,
they will say, She is his wife, there is no hope of enjoying her

28 PARAPHRASE UPON

while he is alive : so they will kill me, that they may with more
liberty enjoy thee, and live with thee.

XIII. 10. " And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain
of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD
destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LOUD,
like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar."] — So when
Lot had taken a view of all that country, he saw that part of the
plain of Jordan to be well watered every where, and therefore
very rich and commodious for pasture ; for before the Lord de
stroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, with those other three bordering
cities, it was a goodly and fruitful land ; like unto the garden of
Eden for pleasure ; or like unto the land of Egypt watered with
the streams of Nilus : especially that part that is toward Zoar, as
it is now called, then Bela.

ii. "Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan &c."]—
Then Lot, being led only by his eye, not at all inquiring into the
quality of the people, chose to himself, although the younger, all
that part of the plain of Jordan.

14. " And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was
separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the
place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward,
and westward;"] — Seeing thou hast so willingly yielded to thy
nephew, thou shalt sustain no loss by it. Lift up thine eyes now;
and look round about thee, from this high place where thou art,
northward and southward, &c.

15. "For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it,
and to thy seed for ever."] — For all the land which thou seest,
and all that pertains unto it, will I give to thee in right, and to
thy seed after thee, in possession for many ages.

16. "And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so
that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy
seed also be numbered."] — And I will increase thy seed, both
carnal and spiritual, unto a very exceeding great number ; so as
they shall not be counted for multitude.

XIV. i. "Tidal, king of nations."] — Tidal, king of a mixed
people, which dwelt near unto them.

[4. "And when Abram heard that his brother was taken cap
tive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three
hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan."] — When
Abram heard that his nephew Lot was taken captive, he brought
forth into the field and armed three hundred and eighteen per-

GENESIS XIII. 10— XV. 6. 29

sons of them that were born and brought up in his house ; besides
them that he had bought and procured to his service ; yea, besides
the companies of his confederates : and pursued them to the far
thest point of that land which God should give to his posterity,
even to Dan.

1 8. "And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and
wine, &c."] — And Melchizedek. king of Salem, brought forth store
of provision for the entertainment of Abram and his company ;
which as he did royally, like a king,

19. "And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the
most high God, possessor of heaven and earth :"] — So, as he was
a priest of the most high God, by virtue thereof he blessed him,
saying, Blessed be thou, Abram, &c.

20. "And he gave him tithes of all."] — And Abram, ac
knowledging his office, voluntarily offered to him the tithe of all
the goods that were taken.

22. "I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, &c."] — I have
solemnly sworn by the Lord, the most high God, &c. — And, in
token thereof, lift up my hand unto him ere I went to this fight.

23. " That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet,"
&c.] — Wishing all evil to myself, if I shall take from thee so
much as a thread, &c.

XV. 2. " And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me,
seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer
of Damascus?"] — And Abram, which hitherto had only heard
God's promises to him, now said, Alas, Lord, all the blessings
that thou shalt personally give me cannot much avail me, seeing
I go childless ; and the man whom I shall leave heir of my house
is but a stranger in blood and country, this Eliezer of Damascus.

5. " And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now
toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them :
and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be."] — Moreover, he
brought him forth of his house in the evening, after he had spent
the day within in the exercise of his faith, and said, Look up
now to heaven, and count the stars thou seest there, if thou canst
possibly number them, so far shalt thou be from barrenness, that
thy seed, both spiritual and carnal, shall be as infinite in number
as they.

6. " And he believed in the LORD ; and he counted it to him
for righteousness."] — And Abram believed in God, and steadfastly
relied on these gracious promises which were made unto him ; and

30 PARAPHRASE UPON

therefore, upon his faith God accounted him truly just and right
eous in his sight.

8. " And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall 1 know that I shall
inherit it ?"] — And Abram said, 0 Lord God, I do believe that
my seed shall, as thou sayest, inherit this land ; but yet I desire
thee to give me some further confirmation and assurance of my
faith in this point.

12. "And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell
upon Abram ; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon
him."] — And when the sun was set, there fell, by the appointment
of God, a deep sleep upon Abram ; and his mind was troubled in
his dream with much fear and unquietness.

1 3. "And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed
shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve
them ; and they shall afflict them four hundred years ;"] — Then
the Lord said to him, for the declaring of these doubtful visions of
his sleep, Know, for certain, that thy seed shall be a stranger in
Egypt and Canaan, which as yet also is not thine, for the space
of four hundred years ; in a great part whereof they shall serve,
and be evil entreated.

1 6. " But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again :
for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full."] — And in the
fourth succession of men they shall come forth to this place
again, which then shall be theirs, for the wickedness of the Amo
rites, who must be driven out hence to give room to thy posterity,
is not yet come to their full ripeness for rny intended judgments.

17. "And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and
it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that
passed between those pieces."] — Also, yet somewhat longer after
the going down of the sun, there was represented unto him a great
darkness, and behold, a smoking furnace in which God would fore
show to Abram the affliction and servility of his posterity ; and
withal there was a clear lamp, betokening his deliverance ; both
which passed between the pieces formerly divided.

XVI. 3. "And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the
Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan,
and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife."] — Then
Sarai, Abram's wife, being past all hope of issue, seeing she was
now seventy-five years old, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian,
after she had waited ten years for the performance of God's pro
mise concerning Abram's seed, (so long had Abram now dwelt in

GENESIS XV. 8.— XVII. 17. 31

Canaan), and, by consent of all sides, out of her weakness and
distrust, gave her to her husband to be his wife, in regard of all
the rights of the marriage bed, though not of household govern
ment.

12. "And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against
every man, and every man's hand against him ; and he shall dwell
in the presence of all his brethren/"] — And he shall be a wild and
savage man, of a fierce and untamable disposition; he shall be
ready, in the height of his courage, to fight with every man, and
every man shall be as ready to wage war with him ; all which
notwithstanding, his success shall be such, that he shall live, and
rule far and wide in all the coasts of his brethren.

13. " For she said, Have I also here looked after him that
seeth me?"] — For she said, Have I not here also, even in the
waste desert, and not only in the house of Abram, seen that good
God of mine, which hath first graciously looked upon me and
mine affliction ?

XVII. i. "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine,
the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Al
mighty God ; walk before me, and be thou perfect/'] — And when
Abram was ninety and nine years old, and had now waited thir
teen years after the birth of Ishmael, the Lord, by some visible
representation of his presence, appeared unto Abram, and said to
him, I am God omnipotent, and therefore able to fulfil all my
promises, which may seem delayed ; only carry thou thyself holily
and awfully as ever in my sight, and let thy heart be still sincere
and upright towards me.

2. " And I will make my covenant between me and thee."] —
And I will renew, and, by a sensible sign, confirm and ratify my
covenant between me and thee.

14. " And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his fore
skin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people ;
he hath broken my covenant."] — But the man child, which at due
age shall, through his own default, be uncircumcised, contemning
mine ordinance, even that person shall be cut off from the fellow
ship of my people, both on earth and in heaven : because he hath,
in neglect of the sign, broken and despised my covenant.

17. " Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said
in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred
years old ? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear ?"] —
TheH Abraham fell upon his face, and partly for joy, partly for

32 PARAPHRASE UPON

admiration arid astonishment, laughed in himself; and thought
thus in his heart, Shall a child be born to me at an hundred
years of age ; and, which is more wonderful, shall this son be
born of Sarah my wife, after her ninety years' barrenness ? See
ing our youth could raise no seed, shall our old age be blessed
with posterity ?

1 8. " And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live
before thee !"] — And Abraham said to God ; I believe, 0 Lord, as
thou sayest, that my old age shall be blessed with further issue ;
for which also thou wilt, in all likelihood, reserve thy special and
highest favour : but let not the son thou hast given me already,
even Ishmael, be cast out and neglected by thee ; let it please thee
to continue him to me also, with much prosperity.

XVIII. 2. "And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three
men stood by him."] — And as he looked about, behold, three
angels, in the appearance of men, though not yet so known of
him, stood within view of him.

3. " And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy
sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant."] — And he,
noting one of them to carry some extraordinary majesty above the
rest, as being indeed the Son of God, spake especially to him, not
excluding the rest ; Lord, if I have now found favour in thy sight,
go not, I pray thee, hastily away from me thy servant ; but be
content that I may give thee some entertainment.

10. " And he said, 1 will certainly return unto thee according
to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son."] —
And he said, I will most certainly return again to thee at that
time, when the conception, by course of nature, may have life and
being ; and lo, then Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son.

11. " And it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of
women."] — That disposition of body, which naturally, in their
months, is necessary for child-bearing women, was, through dry-
ness of age, long ago ceased in Sarah.

12. " Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I
am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?"] —
Therefore Sarah distrustfully laughed in the secret of her heart,
and said in herself, After I am waxen old, above the course of
nature in those that are capable of conceiving, and my husband
Abraham also, shall I have the pleasure of the marriage bed, which
in my younger days I could not find ?

1 8. "Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and

GENESIS XVII. 18.— XIX. ii. 33

mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in
him."] — Seeing that I have purposed to honour Abraham so, as
that of his loins a great and mighty nation shall rise ; and in that
seed which shall come of him, namely, the Saviour of mankind, all
the nations in the earth shall be blessed, and all solemn benedic
tions shall still be under the name of Abraham.

21. "I will go down now, and see whether they have done al
together according to the cry of it, which is come unto me ; and
if not, I will know."] — I will now take some public course, where
by the world may see and know that I take notice of their sins ;
I will therefore call their sins to examination, and judge them
according to the shamelessness of their wickedness ; and if their
iniquity hath been less heinous than it hath appeared, I will inflict
some less grievous punishment upon them.

22. " And the men turned their faces from thence, and went
toward Sodom : but Abraham stood yet before the LORD."] —
And the two destroying angels turned from Abraham, and went
towards Sodom ; but Abraham stood still before the third, whom
now he knew to be the Son of God, suing to him for mercy.

24. " Perad venture there be fifty righteous within the city :
wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty
righteous that are therein?"] — If there be fifty sincere, upright,
and innocent men in all the five cities, whereof Sodom is the
chief, wilt thou destroy them, notwithstanding ?

28. " Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous:
wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five ?"] — If there shall
lack five of fifty righteous in all the five cities, wilt thou for the
want of five destroy them ?

XIX. 5. " And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where
are the men which came in to thee this night ? bring them out
unto us, that we may know them."] — Who, crying unto Lot,
said, Where are the men which came unto thee this night, whose
goodly form and beauty we noted ; bring them forth to us, that
we may use them to our lust.

8. " Only unto these men do nothing ; for therefore came they
under the shadow of my roof."] —For, seeing they are come to
my house as my guests, by the law of common equity and hospi
tality they may well look to be safe guarded by me.

n." And they smote the men that were at the door of the
house with blindness, both small and great : so that they wearied
themselves to find the door."]— Then they smote all the Sodom-

BP. HALL, VOL. III. D

34 PARAPHRASE UPON

ites that were at the door, both small and great, with such dizzi
ness of brain and dimness of sight, that they went up and down
groping for Lot's door till they were weary, and could not find it.

14. " And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons-in-law, which
married his daughters," &c.] — Then Lot went out, and spake
unto his sons-in-law which were contracted to his daughters.

17. "And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth
abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life ; look not behind thee,
neither stay thou in all the plain ; escape to the mountain, lest
thou be consumed.-"] — And when they had brought them, as it
were by strong hand, out of the city, the angel said, Now escape
for thy life: do not, whether for distrust or curiosity or pity,
once look towards Sodom ; and think it not enough that thou
hast voided the city ; unless thou make speed also out of the
whole plain, which hath been defiled by these abominations ; haste
thee therefore up to the next hill, lest thou be destroyed.

20. " Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a
little one : Oh let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and
my soul shall live."] — See now, this town, which is hard by, and
therefore easy for me to flee unto; and is withal a little one,
and therefore not much for thee to grant, and by all likelihood
not so notoriously evil as these other, that are more frequent and
populous : 0 let me go thither for shelter ; behold, it is no great
thing that I ask of thee, and yet such as may be to my safety
and preservation.

22. " Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing
till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called
Zoar."] — Haste thee then, and be thou there preserved; for such
is my merciful respect to thee, that it holds my hands so that I
cannot take revenge on these wicked cities till thou be in safety ;
therefore, upon this occasion of Lot's argument from the smallness
of the city, it was ever after called Zoar.

24. " Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah
brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven."] — Then God
the Son rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other
two cities of the plain, fire and brimstone, from God the Father
out of heaven.

26. " But his wife looked back from behind him, and she
became a pillar of salt."]— Now his wife, that stood lingering
behind him, whether through love or pity of the place, or ex
pectation of her sons-in-law, or distrust, or curious desire to see

GENESIS XIX. 14.— XX. 4. 35

the manner of the judgment, looked back towards Sodom ; and
therefore was inwrapped in the judgment ; and, through the ex
treme rage of that fire and brimstone wherewith she was over-

O

whelmed, was miraculously made a pillar of a white or saltish
kind of stone.

30. " And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the moun
tain, and his two daughters with him ; for he feared to dwell in
Zoar : and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters."] — But
he feared to tarry in Zoar, through the weakness of his faith,
notwithstanding God's promise to him ; whether for that it was so
near to Sodom, or whether for the manners of the place; but
chose rather to dwell solitary in a cave, in the mountain, both he
and his two daughters.

31. ' ' And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is
old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after
the manner of all the earth."] — And the elder said to the younger,
Our father is now old, and cannot long be in any possibility of
issue ; and in all these parts there is not left a man which might
converse with us for generation.

32. " Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will
lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father."] — Come,
we know well that our father will never by sober persuasions be
drawn to this act : let us make him drunk with wine, and so lie
with him ; not so much for any lust, as for the preservation of
some seed of our father.

33. "And they made their father drink wine that night: and
the firstborn went in, and lay with her father ; and he perceived
not when she lay down, nor when she arose."] — And he, being
oppressed with wine, was drawn unawares unto this filthiness, not
considering what he did ; and not perceiving either when she lay
down or rose up.

XX. 2. " And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister:
and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah."] — And
Abraham, through his weakness, seeing how his excuse had sped
in Egypt, renewed it now again ; and, concealing part of the
truth, said, She is my sister. Then Abimelech, a king in that
country of Canaan, upon the report given of her, sent, and took
her into his house.

4. " Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation ?"] — And he
said, Lord, wilt thou punish not me only, but my whole nation and
people in me, which are utterly innocent in this business ?

D 2

36 PARAPHRASE UPON

7. " Now therefore restore the man his wife ; for he is a pro
phet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live," &c.] — Now
then, deliver the man his wife again, for he is a man dear unto me,
and one whom I have in an especial manner graced with my pre
sence and promises ; and therefore, whose prayers shall be much
available for thy safety and life.

10. "And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou,
that thou hast done this thing?1'] — What motive didst thou raise
unto thyself, from any lightness in me, or injury done to thyself
by me, that thou shouldest do this thing ?

1 2. "And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my
father, but not the daughter of my mother ; and she became my
wife."] — Yet, in very deed, I have not merely lied in saying she
is my sister ; but only dissembled, and concealed some part of
the truth ; for she is very near of blood to me, my niece, as being
the daughter of that brother of mine, whom my father had by a
second wife.

1 6. " And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother
a thousand pieces of silver : behold he is to thee a covering of the
eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other : thus she was
reproved."] — Likewise to Sarah he said, Behold, I have given to
him, whom thou calledst thy brother, a thousand pieces of silver j
behold, he is thy protection from all injuries, wheresoever thou
comest : thine eyes and desires shall content themselves with
him alone ; and he shall stand, betwixt all others' eyes and thee,
as thy lawful husband, that they may not thus inordinately desire
thee ; and, by this speech and event, she was thus secretly re
proved.

1 8. "For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the
house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham's wife."] — For
the Lord hath punished all the women in Abimelech's house with
a sudden barrenness ; so that they could not conceive ; because of
Sarah, Abraham's wife.

XXI. 7. "And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham,
that Sarah should have given children suck?"] — Who «ould ever
have thought or believed, much less would have told Abraham,
that Sarah, after this age, should both bear him a son, and have
this strength and vigour of body continued to her, to give suck
also, &c.

14. "And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took
bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it

GENESIS XX.;.— XXIII. 6. 37

on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away/' &c.] He

took bread, and a bottle of water, so much as he thought would
suffice, till they came to the place he enjoined them ; and gave it
unto Ilagar, putting it on her shoulder ; and committed the boy
to her hand, and sent her away, &c.

19. "And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water ;
and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad
drink."] — And now God caused her to see a well of water, which
was there before her ; but, through her grief, or the closeness of
the place, was not before seen of her.

30. "And he said. For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of
my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged
this well."] — And he answered, My desire is, that thou shouldest
receive from my hands these seven lambs, as a pledge or confirma
tion of this covenant of peace made between us ; and an earnest
of the recovery and free grant of this well which I have digged ;
in the receipt whereof, thou shalt disclaim all right and title unto
it for ever.

XXII. 12. "And he. said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad,
neither do any thing unto him : for now I know that thou fearest
God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from
me."] — Then he said, Do not, as thou art about, sacrifice this thy
son unto me, neither do any bodily hurt to him ; for now thou hast
sufficiently approved, by thine act and forwardness, that thou hast
an heart truly religious towards God, seeing at my commandment
thou hast not forborne to have slain thine only son, in whom the
promise of blessing was made unto thee.

14. " And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-
jireh : as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall
be seen."] — And Abraham named the place, God will provide;
whereupon the Jews have a proverb still continued amongst them;
God will make provision in the mount when all means fail.

17. "And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies."] —
Thy posterity shall be victorious over their enemies.

1 8. "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed."] — Of thy seed shall come that Saviour, in whom all be
lievers through the world shall be blessed.

XXIII. 2. " And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to
weep for her."] — And Abraham entered into the tent of Sarah,
that he might solemnly mourn for her in the sight of the corpse.

6. '•' Thou art a mighty prince among us," £c.] — Thou

38 PARAPHRASE UPON

art a great prince, and one whom God hath much honoured
amongst us.

15. " The land is worth four hundred shekels of silver : what
is that betwixt me and thee?"] — The land is worth some hun
dred and eleven ounces of silver ; about fourscore crowns ; between
friends, how small a sum is that to stand upon !

XXIV. 2. " Put, I pray thee, thy hand undermy thigh."] — Ac
cording to the common rite used in the oaths of inferiors to their
superiors.

JO. " To Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor."] — To Charran
in Syria.

ii. "To kneel down."] — To rest under their burdens.

22. "Ten shekels weight of gold."] — Which is the weight of
near three ounces.

XXV. 22. " If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to en
quire of the LORD."] — Why have I conceived, if I must feel such
painful unquietness within me? And she sought to God in her
prayers, to know the reason and issue of this inward strife.

23. " Two nations are in thy womb,".&c.] — The twins, which
are struggling within thee, shall be the fathers of two opposite
nations, the Israelites and the Edomites.

31. " Sell me this day thy birthright."] — Make over to me all
the privileges of thy birthright ; the consecration, the honour, the
double portion that belongeth thereunto.

XXVII. 27. " See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a
field which the LORD hath blessed."] — The smell of the garments
of my son is as the sweet perfume which is sent up from a field,
richly furnished with all manner of pleasant and fragrant flowers
and herbs.

33. " And Isaac trembled very exceedingly," &c.] — And Isaac
was exceedingly astonished in himself at the thought of the con
veyance of the blessing upon a person that he intended not.

40. "By thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother.""]
The course of thy life shall be troublesome and unquiet ; and thou
shalt uphold thy state by wars : and though thy person shall be
free, yet in thy posterity thou shalt be subject to the issue of thy
brother Jacob.

45. " Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day ?"]
— If Esau should in his fury kill thee, the law will justly kill him,
and so we lose both at once.

46. " I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth."]

GENESIS XXIII. 15.— XXX. 14. 39

— These heathenish wives of Esau are a perpetual and intolerable
vexation to my soul, by reason of their idolatry and viciousness.

XXVIII. 1 6. " Surely the LORD is in this place ; and I knew
it not."] — Surely the Lord hath, in a divine dream or vision, re
presented himself to me unexpectedly in this place.

17. "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the
house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."] — How full of awe
and reverend respect is this place, which God hath thus sanctified
by his presence ; having so familiarly manifested himself to me
here, as men do in their dwelling houses to their friends. This is
no other than a representation of God's spiritual house, his Church,
by which we enter into the glory of heaven.

22. "And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be
God's house."] — The place where I set up this stone shall be de
dicated to the worship and service of my God, where I will build
an altar to his name.

XXIX. 12. " Her father's brother," &c.]— Her father's cousin
or nephew.

17. " Leah was tender eyed," &c.] — Leah had an unbecoming
weakness in her eyes.

37. " Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also," &c.] —
Do thou celebrate the consummation of Leah's marriage seven
days, according to the custom ; and then, when this former mar
riage is fully ratified and complete, I will give thee her other
sister to wife.

31. "That Leah was hated," &c.j — That Leah was less re
garded or disesteemed in comparison of Rachel.

XXX. i. " Give me children, or else I die," &c.] — Grief and
impatience will kill me, if I have not children from thy loins, as
well as my sister Leah.

3. " Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her ; and she shall bear
upon my knees, that I may also have children by her."] — Behold
my maid Bilhah ; go, retire thyself into her chamber, and lie with
her ; and I shall have children by her, which I shall bear upon
my knees, and in my bosom, as my own.

4. "And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife."] — Then
she gave him Bilhah her maid, to converse with as a wife.

14. " And found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto
his mother Leah."] — And found mandrake apples in the field,
which he had perceived his mother to esteem for their medicinable
use, and brought them therefore to her.

40 PARAPHRASE UPON

1 8. "And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I
have given my maiden to my husband."] — Then said Leah, God
hath repaid me my reward for the good office which I did to my
husband, in giving him my handmaid for his concubine.

22. " And God hearkened to her, and opened her womb."] —
And God heard her prayers, and gave her power to conceive.

40. " And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of
the flocks toward the ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock
of Laban."] — And turned the faces of those sheep which were in
the flock of Laban towards the party-coloured and black which
•were of his flock, that the sight thereof might cause those colours
in their conception.

XXXI. 7. '•' And your father hath deceived me, and changed
my wages ten times," &c.] — But your father hath deceived me,
and changed my wages agreed upon very often ; but God hath so
ordered it, that his changes have been no loss to my estate.

10. " And it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived,
that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the
rams which leaped upon the cattle ivere ringstraked, speckled, and
grisled."] — For in ramming time, God premonished me in a
dream, of this course of enriching myself by the party-coloured
goats, male and female ; and of this means to effect that diversity
of colour.

15. " Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold
us, and hath quite devoured also our money."] — Had he not dealt
•with us as strangers ? for he hath sold us to thee for thy service
instead of a dowry ; and since he hath thus used us, shall we stay
still that he may prey upon us, and consume that substance which
we have.

19. " And Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's."]
— Then Rachel, whether out of some superstition of her own, or in
some purpose to bereave her father of those means of his idolatry,
stole the images which her father had wont to worship.

20. " And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian."]
— Then Jacob stole away secretly, without the knowledge or con
sent of Laban, his father-in-law.

23. "And he took his brethren with him."] — He took his
icinsfolk with him, &c.

35. " Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before
thee ; for the custom of women is upon me."] — The accustomed
infirmity of women is upon me, and makes me unfit for these out-

GENESIS XXX. i S.— XXXII. 25. 41

ward duties of courtesy ; I beseech thee hold me excused in the
forbearance of this ceremony of my due respect to thee.

42. " Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and
the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me
away now empty."] — If the God of my father, I mean the God of
Abraham, and the same God whom Isaac my father feareth and
worshippeth, had not been with me, and prospered me, &c.

47. " And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha : but Jacob called
it Galeed."] — And Laban in the Syrian tongue, and Jacob in the
Hebrew, called it, The heap of the witness.

53. " The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of
their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob swaro by the fear of his
father Isaac."] — The God which once Abraham worshipped, and
the gods of his predecessors, be judge between us; but Jacob
sware by the true God, whom his father Isaac feared.

XXXII. i. "And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of
God met him."] — And the angels of God appeared to him in the
way, in the form of heavenly soldiers.

5. "And I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace
in thy sight."] — And I have sent to give thee, my lord Esau,
notice both of my purpose of passing through thy country, and of
my estate.

ii. "Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother,
from the hand of Esau : for I fear him."] — Deliver me from the
revenge of my brother, even my brother Esau ; for I fear lest he
will come and put all to the sword, without regard of sex or age.

13. "And took of that which came to his hand a present for
Esau his brother."] — And took of the choicest of that substance
he had for a present for Esau.

24. " And there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of
the day."] — God the Son appeared to him, and wrestled with him,
in the likeness of a man, exercising both his bodily and spiritual
strength.

35. "And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he
touched the hollow of his thigh ; and the hollow" of Jacob's thigh
was out of joint, as he wrestled with him."] — And when he had
proved the strength of his faith such as that it could not be
daunted, &c. lest Jacob should have been puffed up with the
opinion of his strength, Christ left him a bodily affliction to hum
ble him by, such as might testify it was not the hand of a mere
man that strove with him.

42

26. " And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he
said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me."] — And he, as
yet concealing himself from Jacob, said, after the manner of men,
as if the violence of Jacob had compelled him, Let me go, for the
morning appeareth ; but Jacob, now perceiving some more than
human matter in this his wrestler, answered, Let me be im
portunate with thee, not to depart from me till thou have blessed
me.

27. " And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said,
Jacob."] — Then asked he, not as being ignorant, but as desirous
to take occasion from Jacob's own report of his name, to pro
nounce his purpose of the alteration of it, What is thy name ?

28. "For as a prince hast thou power with God and with men,
and hast prevailed."] — Because thy faith and importunity hath
prevailed with God, much more shalt thou prevail with Esau, and
with whatsoever adversary.

30. "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is pre
served."] — I have seen the Son of God in the assumed shape of a
man, face to face, and have escaped death ; both from this sight,
and also from the danger of Esau.

32. " Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew
which shrank."] — Therefore the children of Israel, in a reverent
remembrance of this act and event concerning Jacob, eat not of
the hinder sinews, &c.

XXXIII. 3. "And he passed over before them, and bowed
himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his
brother."] — So he went before them, and bowed himself in an
humble manner sundry times, while he was within the sight of
Esau.

10. "For therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen
the face of God."] — It is unspeakably comfortable to me, that I
have seen thy face thus loving and friendly to me.

20. "And he erected there an altar, and called it El-Elohe-
Israel."] — And he consecrated there anew that altar which was
set up by his grandfather Abraham, which he called The Altar
of the mighty God of Israel.

XXXIV. 3. "And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of
Jacob."] — So his affections were set upon Dinah.

17. "Then will we take our daughter, and we will be gone."]
—Then will we take our sister away out of your custody, and
depart,

GENESIS XXXII. 26.— XXXVI. 6. 43

23. "Shall not their cattle and their substance and every
beast of theirs, be ours?" &c.] — It shall not be only a matter
of pleasure and contentment to us, but also of great profit unto
you all ; for shall we not have a right in all their substance and
strength ?

24. "All that went out of the gate of his city."] — All that
dwelt within the city.

25. "And it came to pass on the third day, when they were
sore," &c.] — And on the third day, when they were sore and
stiff of the wound of their circumcision.

30. "And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled
me," &c.] — Ye have put me to much unquietness in unsettling my
estate, and have made me odious to the inhabitants.

XXXV. 2. "Put away the strange gods that are among you,
and change your garments.'1] — Cast away those false gods of the
heathen which you learned to worship in Syria, the idols of La-
ban or Shechem, and cleanse both your souls and bodies; and
by the change of your very apparel, testify the change of your
hearts.

i o. " And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob : thy name
shall not be called any more Jacob, &c."] — Moreover, God said
unto him, in a confirmation and reiteration of the same favour
which he had formerly showed to Jacob, Thy name shall no more
be called Jacob, &c.

ii. "And God said unto him, lam God Almighty: be fruitful
and multiply, &c. And kings shall come out of thy loins, &c."] —
Many tribes shall arise from thy seed, and out of them shall
many exercise princely authority, both over their own nations and
others.

14. "And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked
with him."] — So Jacob, according to his vow formerly made, set
up a monument of a stone in that place where God had talked
with him ; and, both by pouring out of water and oil, consecrated
it to God.

18. "That she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called
him Benjamin."] — She called his name, The son of my sorrow;
but his father, as not willing to have so sad a remembrance of his
loss evermore before him in the name of his son, called him, to
signify his dearness, with a little change of the word. The son of
my right hand.

XXXVI. 6. "And went into the country from the face of his

44 PARAPHRASE UPON

brother Jacob."] — And fully removed his whole family and sub
stance unto mount Seir, where he had before sojourned.

24. " This was that Anah that found the mules in the wilder
ness."] — This was that Anah which first found out, by mixture of
the seeds of two kinds, the generation of mules in the wilderness.

31. " Before there reigned any king over the children of
Israel."] — Before there was any ordinary ruler or magistrate in
Israel.

XXXVTI. 2. <( And Joseph brought unto his father their evil
report."] — And Joseph brought unto his father's ear the evil ru
mours and reports that went of the misbehaviour of his brethren.

3. "And he made him a coat of many colours."] — And he
made him a party-coloured coat, which was held to be of more
pleasant show, and, by reason of the mixtures, more curious.

27. "And let not our hand be upon him."] — Let us not lay
violent hands upon him, and be defiled with his blood, in suffering
him thus wilfully to perish with hunger.

28. "Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen."] — The
Midianites (or Ismaelites so called, indifferently, because they
bordered upon each other, and were near both in place and
blood) passed by.

30. "And I, whither shall I go?"] — And I, which way shall I
turn me, or what shall I do ? since both I have already provoked
my father's displeasure by my incest ; and at my hands especially,
as being eldest, he will require my brother.

32. " And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought
it to their father ; and said, This have we found."] — So they sent
that party-coloured coat, and caused it to be brought unto their
father, with this message.

35. " For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning."]
— Surely I will not cease mourning for my son, until I go down
to my own grave.

36. "Unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of
the guard."] — Unto Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's chief courtiers,
and captain of his guard.

XXXVIII. 8. "Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her,
and raise up seed to thy brother."] — Go, according to the custom
of our people, and converse with thy deceased brother's wife, and
do that office to her which appertains to the next of blood ; that
the issue which shall come of thee may be imputed unto him, to
take away the reproach of his barrenness.

GENESIS XXXVI. 24.— XLI. 34. 45

j i . " For he said, Lest peradventure ho die also, as his brethren
did."~\ — For he thought it is not safe thus to bestow my son, nei
ther hath this match been hitherto so prosperous, that I dare ad
venture my third sou ; yet will I put her in hope hereof, for her
present contentment.

15. "When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot ;
because she had covered her face."] — When Judah saw her sit
ting thus openly, alone, by the way side, he judged her an whore ;
for he could not discern her, who she was, because her face was
covered with the veil.

23. "Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed." — Let her
keep these pledges, and let us take no notice of them, nor make
any inquiry lest the filthiness of this my act may hence be known
to my shame.

XXXIX. 6. "And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand;
and he knew not aught he had, save the bread which he did
eat."] — He took care of nothing, save only to eat and drink, and
follow his own contentments, referring the oversight of all things
to Joseph.

7. " That his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph."] — Cast
wanton eyes and affections upon Joseph.

1 4. " See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock
us."] — See, he hath taken in this Hebrew to offer this villany
and violence unto me.

XL. 8. "Do not interpretations belong to God?"] — What do
you, looking after sinister means ? or why are ye grieved for the
want of means? hath not God given power of interpreting all
secrets to some of his servants?

13. " Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head."]
— Within three days shall Pharaoh advance thee to thy former
dignity.

19. "Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head
from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree ; and the birds shall
eat thy flesh from off thee."] — Within three days shall Pharaoh
put thee to death ; and after, for the greater ignominy, shall
hang thee upon a tree till thy flesh be consumed.

XLI. 1 6. "It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an an
swer of peace."] — I can do nothing of myself in this business :
but God shall by me give an answer to the contentment of
Pharaoh.

34. "And take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt."] —

46 PARAPHRASE UPON

And take up the fifth part of the fruits of the land, and keep it
in meet storehouses for future use.

43. "And they cried before him, Bow the knee."] — And the
heralds cried before him, that the people should bow their knees
to him, &c.

44. " I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his
hand or foot in all the land of Egypt."] — I only reserve unto my
self the place and title of being king of Egypt ; in the rest, I will
have thee to be next me : so that no man shall attempt any thing
at all in the public government of the state without thy advice and
consent.

45. " And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphna'th-paaneah ;
and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah
priest of On."] — And Pharaoh called his name, The discloser of
secrets ; and he gave him to wife Asenath, the daughter of an
other Potipher, which was governor of Heliopolis.

XLII. 6—9. "And he it was that sold to all the people of the
land."] — Ye are spies, and are come to mark what parts of the
land are least defenced.

13. "Thy servants are twelve brethren, &c. ; and, behold, the
youngest is this day with our father, and one is not."] — It need
not seem suspicious to thee that we come thus so many together
of a company ; for the cause is, that "we are all so many bre
thren, &c. And one is dead.

1 6. " Or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies."] —
Or else, as sure as Pharaoh liveth, ye are but spies.

36. " Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Ben
jamin away : all these things are against me."] — Joseph is dead,
and Simeon is in danger to miscarry in prison, and now you will
take Benjamin from me; all these are heavy afflictions, which
you have brought upon me.

XLIII. 14. " If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved."]
— I am determined to put it to the hazard, relying on God for the
event; if therefore I shall be robbed of my sons, let me be
robbed ; go you on, and do as the necessity of the business re-
quireth.

32. "Because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the
Hebrews."] — Because the Egyptians held it unlawful to eat with
the Hebrews ; chiefly, for the differences of their religion ; for the
Hebrews were wont to sacrifice those creatures which the Egypt
ians worshipped.

GENESIS XLI.43.— XLVII. 9. 47

XLIV. 4. " Up, follow after the men ; and when thou dost over
take them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for
good?"] — Up, follow after them; and when thou dost overtake
them, make this merry and officious lie for my sake ; ask them,
in dissimulation, Why have ye, &c.

5. "Is not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby
indeed he divineth?"] — Is not that which you have stolen, the
cup of special note and use for my master ; both for his table,
and, according to the manner of the Egyptian magicians, for divi
nation and soothsaying ?

15. " Wot ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?"]
— Could you think any otherwise of me, being a peer of Egypt,
but that I could by divination find out your offence !

XLV. 8. " And he hath made me a father to Pharaoh."] — God
hath made me not only a counsellor of state to Pharaoh, but a
means of preservation of his court and kingdom, &c.

12. " That it is my mouth that speaketh unto you."] — You see
and perceive by my language that I am your brother Joseph that
speak unto you.

1 8. " And I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and
ye shall eat the fat of the land."] — I will give you the most com
modious and fruitful part of the land of Egypt to dwell in ; and
ye shall be partakers of the best profits of the country.

26. "And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not.11] —
And Jacob swooned with sudden astonishment at this news of
Joseph, and the mention of his name.

XLVI. 4. " And Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes."]
— And Joseph shall close up thine eyes when thou diest.

34. " For every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyp
tians."] — For every sheep-keeper, not out of pride, but super
stition, is abominable to the Egyptians.

XLVII. 6. "The land of Egypt is before thee."]— Take thee
the choice of the whole land of Egypt.

Ibid. And if thou knowest any men of activity among them."]
If thou knowest that there be any amongst them of skill and
strength.

9. "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred
and thirty years."] — The whole time of my life, which to me hath
been as a continued pilgrimage, both in respect of my many habi
tations, and of that one fixed habitation which abides for me
above, &c.

48 PARAPHRASE UPON

31. "And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head."] — And
Jacob raised himself upon his pillow to give thanks to God.

XLVIII. 5. "Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto
thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt,
are mine."] — Manasseh and Ephraim shall be, not as my grand
children, but even as my own ; and shall have a portion of in
heritance among their brethren, as if they had come immediately
out of my own loins.

6. " And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be
thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their
inheritance.'1] — But thy other children, if any shall be since born
unto thee, shall carry thy name ; and look for their portion under
the title of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.

12. "And Joseph brought them out from between his knees,
and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.""] — And Joseph
took them away from his father's knees, to set them in that order
wherein he desired the blessing might be given them ; which done,
he bowed himself to the ground in a reverent and humble manner,
to crave this blessing from his father.

16. "The angel which redeemed me, &c. And let my name
be named on them."] — That angel of the covenant, the Son of
God, which hath delivered, &c. Let them be numbered among
the patriarchs of God's people as my sons, &c.

22. "I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren,
which I took out of the hand of the Amorite."] — I give thee one
portion, according to the privilege of the birthright above thy
brethren : the city and territories of Shechem, Avhich, after that
my sons had taken from the Hivites, 1 maintained by strong hand
against the Amorites.

XLIX. i . " That I may tell you that which shall befall you in
the last days."] — What shall come to pass in the following times,
both soon upon my departure, and many ages after.

3. " Thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my
strength."] — Thou wert both begotten in the prime of my strength,
and wert the first of my sons in whom my strength consisteth :
having as then all the privileges of the firstborn; preeminence
over thy brethren, and a double portion above them.

4. "Thou shalt not excel."] — Thou art run abroad as water
that is spilt, which cannot be gathered up ; thou shalt no more be
eminent above thy brethren, &c.

5. Simeon and Levi are brethren ; instruments of cruelty are

GENESIS XL VII. 31.— XLIX. 16. 49

in their habitations."] — Simeon and Levi, which have too well
consented together to do mischief, and were instruments of much
cruelty in their agreement against the Shechemites.

6. " O my soul, come not thou into their secret ; unto their
assembly, mine honour, be not thou united, for in their anger they
slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall."] — Let
not my soul join with them in their consultations, neither let my
reputation depend upon their meeting, which my heart abhorred ;
for in their wrath they slew the Shechemites, and in their selfwill
brake down the walls of their city.

7. " I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel."]
— They shall have no certain habitations allowed to their tribes,
but shall be mingled with their other brethren.

8. "Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise."] —
Judah, according as thy name imports, thou shalt have praise
from thy brethren, who shall acknowledge thy princedom in thy
posterity over them, &c.

10. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver
from between his feet, until Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the
gathering of the people be."~\ — Judah shall have a known distinct
tribe amongst his brethren and governors in the kingdom, of the
same line, to bear rule until the time of Messias' coming ; and the
people shall yield their obedience to him.

j i. "Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the
choice vine ; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in
the blood of grapes:"] — He shall so abound with wines that he
shall load his asses with grapes, and even wash his garments with
the juice of them.

1 2. " His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with
milk."] — His posterity shall be abundantly furnished with wine
and milk, vineyards and pastures.

13. " Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea ; and he shall
be for an haven of ships."] — Zebulun shall be commodiously situ
ated for his traffick by the sea side towards Zidon.

14. " Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two bur
dens."] — Issachar shall be laborious and strong, more fit for sub
jection than command ; and shall yield himself willingly to all im
positions of labour and tributes.

1 6. " Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel."] — •
Dan, though he be the son of a bondwoman, yet shall attain unto

BP. HALL, VOL. III. E

50 PARAPHRASE UPON

the dignity of ruling amongst the tribes of Israel ; and shall afford
some that shall sway the government.

17. " Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path,
that biteth the horse heels."] — His posterity shall enlarge their
bounds, and prevail more by subtlety than strength ; and there
fore shall be like the serpent, &c.

1 8. " I have waited for thy salvation, 0 LORD."] — And though
this tribe shall pass through many oppressions and grievances, yet,
O Lord, I do constantly expect thy gracious deliverance of him.

1 9. ' ' Gad, a troop shall overcome him : but he shall overcome
at the last."] — Gad shall be sore annoyed with the Ammonites,
and other neighbouring nations, but shall at last prevail.

20. " Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield
royal dainties."] — Concerning Asher, he shall he seated in a place
of great fruit-fulness and delicacy.

21. "Napthali is a hind let loose : he giveth goodly words."] —
Napthali shall be both swift to war, and yet gentle and friendly
to embrace and maintain peace.

22. "Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well ;
whose branches run over the wall :"] — Joseph shall be as a fruit
ful bough set beside a fountain, whose branches shall run upon the
wall, and have benefit of the reflection.

23. "The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him,
and hated him:"] — His enemies bent themselves against him as
an archer doth his bow to shoot at a mark, and wrought all the
mischief they could against him :

24. " But his bow abode in strength, &c. Of the mighty God
of Jacob ; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel :)"] —
But his strength was able to match them in their own kind, &c.
The God of Jacob, of whom and by whom Joseph was appointed
as a nourisher and refuge unto Israel.

26. " The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the
blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the ever
lasting hills."] — The blessings of me, thy father, shall be the
stronger upon thee by being added unto the blessing of Abraham
and Isaac, which all do light upon thee ; and shall continue as
long as there are hills upon the earth.

27. "Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall
devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil."]— Benja
min shall be fierce and terrible in his wars, devouring his enemies

GENESIS XLIX. 17.— EXODUS 1. 12. 51

as a wolf his prey, and shall have his whole time taken up with
the division and improving of the spoil.

L. 3. "And the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten
days."] — And the Egyptians bewailed him seventy days, whereof
the forty days of embalming were a part.

17. "Forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy
father."] —Forgive the trespass of them, which, besides the bonds
of nature, are tied unto theo with so near bonds of reli<rion, £c.

O

19. "Fear not: for am I in the place of God?"] — Fear not:
for is not all this done by the will and disposition of that wise and
holy God which ordained this to good ?

23. "The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were
brought up upon Joseph's knees."] — The sons of Machir were a
comfort to Joseph their grandfather in their education ; who
brought them up, and took pleasure in them.

25. " And ye shall carry up my bones from hence."] — Ye shall,
when ye depart out of Egypt, carry my bones hence with you, and
bury them in the promised land, &c.

•ft

EXODUS.

I. 8. " Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew
not Joseph."] — A new king, for his laws and manner of govern
ment, which unthankfully forgot the great service which Joseph
had done to the kingdom and crown of Egypt.

ii. "Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict
them with their burdens."] — Therefore did they set over them
taskmasters, of their own nation, that their cruelty might have
the better pretence.

20. "Therefore God dealt well with the midwives."] — God
therefore prospered the midwives, because, out of religious fear,
they refrained from that cruel practice enjoined them, &c.

II. 4. " And his sister stood afar off."] — His sister Miriam stood
afar off, &c.

11." And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown."]
— And in those days, when Moses was now grown up to his best
age, and was forty years old, &c.

12. " And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw
that there ivas no man, he slew the Egyptian," &c.] — And, though
he knew he had a secret calling to deliver the Israelites, yet be
cause it was not publicly known, he carried himself warily in this
business, and looked round about, &c.

B 2

52 PARAPHRASE UPON

1 8. "And when they came to Reuel their father."] — Reuel
their grandfather.

23. " And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of
Egypt died : and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the
bondage."] — Then, in process of time, this Pharaoh, from whom
Moses fled, died ; and the children of Israel, now in the change of
the prince, hoping for some ease, bemoaned themselves earnestly
to God.

III. 2. " And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him."] — Then
Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, appeared.

5. " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon
thou standest is holy ground."] — In token of reverence and re
spect unto so holy a place, and in token of laying aside all carnal
thoughts and affections, put off thy shoes.

6. " And Moses hid his face ; for he was afraid to look upon
God."] — Then Moses, in humility and awful adoration of the glory
of God, which he held himself not worthy to behold, hid his face.

8. " And to bring them up out of that land unto a good land
afhd a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey."] — There
fore have I thought good to show some testimonies of my pre
sence ; and intention of delivering them ; and bringing them out
of Goshen into a land which, in comparison thereof, is large, and
exceeding fruitful in all useful commodities, both for necessity and
pleasure, &c.

13. " Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and
shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto
you."] — If the Israelites shall curiously inquire concerning thee ;
how, and in what terms, shall I describe thee unto them ?

14. "I AM THAT I AM : and he said, Thus shalt thou say
unto the children of Israel."] — I am constantly and eternally un
changeable, being of myself, and that one, and the same for ever :
even thus shalt thou describe and express me to my people, the
children of Israel, &c.

IV. 6. " Behold, his hand was leprous as snow."] — And behold,
his hand was as white with leprosy as any snow.

10. "0 my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor
since thou hast spoken unto thy servant : but I am slow of speech,
and of a slow tongue."] — I am not ready in speech, nor ever have
been ; neither hath thine appearance, which of all other things
should be most effectual, altered me any whit at all ; but I am
naturally slack, and heavy of utterance.

EXODUS II. 1 8.— V. 4. 53

n." Who hath made man's mouth ? or who maketh the dumb,
or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?"] —
Who hath given to man the faculty of speech ? or who is the au
thor of these infirmities whereof thou complainest ? Dost thou not
consider that I the Lord, who now send thee, cause these where I
will for just and holy purposes ; and give ability of all parts and
senses at my pleasure ?

13. " 0 my Lord, send, I pray thee, hy the hand of him whom
thou wilt send."] — 0 my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the ministry
of some other fitter man than I am ; whosoever it be.

1 6. "Even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou
shalt be to him instead of God."] — Aaron shall speak to the people,
as from thee ; and thou shalt give direction and counsel to Aaron,
as from God.

20. "And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon
an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt : and Moses took
the rod of God in his hand."] — And Moses took his wife, and his
two sons, Gershom and Eleazar, and caused them to ride toward
Egypt ; and Moses took that rod, which God had given so mira
culous experiments of, in his hand.

21. " But I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people
go."] — But I will withdraw and withhold my grace from Pharaoh,
so as he shall, through his own corruption, turn all those occa
sions, which I shall offer him for his repentance, unto the harden
ing of himself in a greater obstinacy of sinning.

22. "Israel is my son, even my firstborn."] — The children of
Israel are my chosen and adopted people ; both before all other
and above all other nations, &c.

24. " And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD
met him, and sought to kill him."] — The Lord appeared visibly
unto him ; and sensibly afflicted him with some sudden and violent
disease, which he knew to be done, in regard of his neglect of his
son's circumcision.

25. " And cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband
art thou to me."] — And, with indignation, she cast the foreskin
at his feet ; and said, It is for thy sake, that I am fain thus to
shed the blood of this my child ; therefore art thou to me a bloody
husband.

V. 4. "Get you unto your burdens."] — 0 ye elders of Israel,
which join with Moses and Aaron in this suit, Get you to your
burdens.

54

5. " Behold, the people of the land now are many, and you make
them rest from their burdens."] — Behold, the Israelites are a great
people : should so many thousands leave their work, and go idle
for your pleasure ?

7. "Ye shall no move give the people straw to make brick, as
heretofore."] — Ye shall give the Israelites no more straw; whether
to mix with their clay, or to burn bricks withal, &c.

21." Because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the
eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword
in their hand to slay us."] — Ye have brought us into hatred
with Pharaoh and his servants ; and have stirred them up to
a further tyranny against us, by giving them this occasion of
vexing us.

VI. 3. "And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto
Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH
was I not known to them."] — I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, as that God, which was still able and powerful to effect
that which I promised ; and they lived still, in the hope and ex
pectation of UJY powerful performance : but now I do appear to
thee, as ready to make good and execute, and give a being to that
which I promised to them.

9. " But they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit,
and for cruel bondage.1'] — But they were so overpressed, and
grown heartless with the cruelty of that bondage, that they re
garded not the words of Moses.

12. "How then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircum-
cised lips?"] — How then shall Pharaoh regard me, which am of
a stammering and hindered utterance ?

14. "The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel."] — The sons
of Reuben, who was, in order of nature, the firstborn though he
lost the privilege thereof.

VII. i . " See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh : and Aaron
thy brother shall be thy prophet."]— Behold, I have made thee a
terrible means to execute my judgments upon Pharaoh ; which
he shall take as wrought by me, through thy hands : and Aaron
thy brother, for his readiness of speech, shall deliver thy mind,
and my message to the Egyptians ; so as thou shalt act, and he
shall speak.

12. " For they cast down every man his rod, and they became
serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods."] — For they
cast down every man his rod, and they were in appearance turned

EXODUS V. 5.— X. 17. 55

into serpents ; but not truly : for that serpent, into which Aaron's
rod was turned devoured theirs.

VIII. 3. "And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly,
which shall go up and come into thine house."] — The river Nilus
shall crawl full of frogs, which, against their natural use, shall leave
the water, and creep up into thy houses.

7. "And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and
brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt."] — And the sorcerers
did likewise, for experiment sake; and brought frogs, whether in
appearance only, or true frogs, (by secret conveyance,) into some
part of Egypt that was freed for this trial.

IQ. " This is the finger of God."] — This work is done by the
immediate and overruling power of God.

IX. 15. "For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may
smite thee and thy people with pestilence ; and thou shalt be cut
off from the earth :" or, " I had stretched out my hand, that I
may have smitten thee."] — For now, when I stretched forth my
hand, I might have smitten thee and thy people, as well as I did
thy cattle, with the pestilence ; and so thou shouldest have pe
rished from the earth.

16. "And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up,
for to show in thee my power :" or, " But indeed/1] — But in
deed, I have in my secret counsel reserved thee for a further
manifestation of my glorious power.

30. " But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not
yet fear the LORD God."] — As for thee and thy servants, I know,
and find upon the experience of your former obstinacy, that you
will not as yet fear before the face of the Lord.

X. i. " For I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his
servants.""] — For I have withdrawn my grace from him and his
servants, that their heart should not relent at my judgment ; yea
I have punished their former sins with hardness of heart, and
obstinacy in sinning, &c.

7. " How long shall this man be a snare unto us ?"] —How long
shall Moses be a means of punishment and destruction to us ?

i o. " Let the LORD do so with you, as I will let you go, and
your little ones : look to it; for evil is before you."] — I wish you
might have no more favour of God than you are like to have of
me, in this suit of dismissing you and your children : look to it;
go, if you will, at your own peril.

17. "That he may take away from me this death only."] —

56 PARAPHRASE UPON

That he would take away from me but this one deadly plague,
wherewith we and our land are thus hurt and spoiled.

XI. 4. " About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt."]
— About midnight I will, by my destroying angel, go through
the midst of Egypt.

7. " But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog
move his tongue, against man or beast."] — But as for the chil
dren of Israel, there shall not be so much as the least danger
of any slaughter towards them, or any unquietness amongst
them.

XII. i. " And the LORD spake unto Moses/1 &c.] — Now, before
the last plague, the Lord had spoken to Moses, &c.

2. " This month shall be unto you the beginning of months."]
— This month shall be unto you, both a month of principal ac
count, as also the first in number in all your religious computa
tions ; so that from this you shall count the year to begin.

3. "In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them
every man a lamb."] — Let every master of a family, within his
several household, take unto him a lamb, &c.

5. " Ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats."]
— Ye shall celebrate your passover for this once, in respect of
those straits wherein you are, either with a lamb or a kid, whe
ther can most commodiously be provided.

6. "And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel
shall kill it in the evening/'] — Every one of the congregation,
whom it concerns, shall kill the lamb, betwixt the ninth and
eleventh hour of the day.

u. "And thus shall you eat it; with your loins girded."] —
And thus shall you eat it, for this first time, for the greater
haste ; with your loins girded.

15. "That soul shall be cut off from Israel."] — That person
shall be separated from the communion of the Church, and lie
open unto bodily judgments.

36. "And they spoiled the Egyptians."]— So they left the
Egyptians destitute of their jewels and rich furnitures ; who, by
their own consent and will, parted with these things, to hire the
Israelites unto a more speedy haste, for their own safeguard.

43. " There shall no stranger eat thereof."] — None, that is a
stranger in religion, shall eat of it.

XIII. 2. " Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever
openeth the womb among the children of Israel."]— That which

EXODUS XL 4.— XIV. 24. 57

first cometh out of the womb, set it apart to me, and consecrate
it to my name; whether it be of man, or of any serviceable
beast, among the Israelites : for it is mine by a peculiar rio-ht •
I having well deserved it, in my preservation from the common
destruction.

9. " And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and
for a memorial between thine eyes, that the LORD'S law may be
in thy mouth."] — This passover shall be as full a remembrance
unto thee of God's mercy in thy deliverance, as if thou shouldst,
by any signet upon thy hand or frontlet between thine eyes,
recall any business or favour which thou wouldest ever think
upon ; yea, thou shalt keep some record or memorial of this
blessing also in those scrolls which thou shalt bind upon thine
arm and head.

13. "And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a
lamb ; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his
neck."] — But the first foal of the ass, because it is an unclean
beast, since it may not be sacrificed, thou shalt redeem it with a
lamb ; or else, because it is not fit, that whatsoever is consecrated
to God should be put to profane uses, thou shalt break the neck
of it, &c.

1 8. "And the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the
land of Egypt/'] — And the children of Israel went up well fur
nished out of the land of Egypt, both with provision and munition.

XIV. 4. " And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall fol
low after them."] — And I will, in just judgment, so besot Pharaoh,
that, forgetting the experiments of my power, he shall, in hope of
prevailing, follow after you.

8. " And the children of Israel went out with an high hand."] —
But the children of Israel went out by strong hand, under the
miraculous guidance and protection of the Almighty.

15. "Wherefore criest thou unto me?"] — AVhy dost thou thus
earnestly importune me in thy secret prayers, which are as so
many loud cries in my ears.

19. "And the angel of God, which went before the camp of
Israel, removed and went behind them."] — And the Angel of the
Covenant (which was Christ) removed the signs of his presence
from before the Israelites, behind them.

24. " And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD
looked unto the host of the Egyptians."]— Xow, in the morning
watch, when the Lord, out of the pillar of fire, who had seemed

58 PARAPHRASE UPON

all this while to wink at the enterprises of the Egyptians, began,
according to our apprehension, to take notice of this their pur
suit, &c.

XV. i. "The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the
sea."] — The troops of horses and their riders hath he overthrown
in the sea.

2. " He is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation."] —
I foresee, by that spirit of prophecy which he hath given me, that
he shall have a tabernacle reared up for him by his people.

3. " The LORD is a man of war."] — The Lord is a noble war
rior indeed.

25. And the LORD showed him a tree, which when he had cast
into the waters, the waters were made sweet:"] — And the Lord
directed him unto a tree, to which he gave such miraculous power,
that, it being cast into the waters, the wood thereof changed the
whole stream from the former bitterness.

Ibid. " There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and
there he proved them."] — There he in general gave them rules
and advice of holy obedience before him, to prepare them for that
exact law which he meant afterwards to deliver, &c.

XVI. 2. "And the whole congregation of the children of Israel
murmured," &c.] — Generally, there was a murmuring over the
whole camp of the most part of the Israelites, &c.

4. " Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you."] — Behold,
I will cause that which shall be instead of bread, to rain, as it were,
out of the clouds upon you.

8. " This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the even
ing flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full."] — Foras
much as you have murmured, both for flesh and for bread, there
fore you shall be filled with both : in the evening shall quails, the
daintiest flesh, fall upon your tents ; and in the morning, manna.

10. "And, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the
cloud."] — And the glory of God showed itself in an extraordinary
manner in the cloud that was wont to appear to them.

15. This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat."] —
They said one to another, This is a strange food, prepared and
given us from above ; for they knew not particularly what it was
or what to name it.

18. "And when they did mete it with an omer, he that ga
thered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no
lack."] — And having put their common gatherings together into

EXODUS XV.T.— XIX. 3. 59

one heap, it was equally divided amongst them ; so as he that had
gathered much had no more than an omer, and he that gathered
little, wanted nothing of it.

34. " So Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept,"
&c.] — So Aaron, in process of time, when the tabernacle was
erected, laid it up before the ark, Avhich testified God's presence
to his people, to be reserved for a monument of God's miraculous
provision for Israel.

36. " Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah."] — The
omer is the tenth part of the Jewish bushel, which contained
about three pecks.

•XVII. 12. "But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took,"
&c.] — And Moses grew faint in body, with long continuance of
that earnest prayer, insomuch as his hands grew weary and re
miss with lifting up : and they took, &c.

15. "And called the name of it Jehovah-nissi."] — And he called
the name of the place, The altar of Jehovah my banner.

XVIII. 12. " They came to eat bread with Moses1 father-in-law
before God."]— They came to feast with Jethro, the father-in-law
of Moses, in that place where God declared his presence by the
cloudy pillar.

13. "And the people stood by Moses from the morning unto
the evening."] — The people stood before Moses to call for justice
in their sevei'al causes, and resolution in their doubts, &c. even all
the day long.

15. "Because the people come unto me to enquire of God.111] —
Because the people come to me in all weighty causes, to consult
with God by me.

19. "Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest
bring the causes unto God."] — Do thou propound the doubts and
demands of the people to God, as also their suits, in thy prayers ;
and report God's answers back again to them.

23. "If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so,
then thou shalt be able to endure."]— If thou shalt do this thing,
which yet I would not draw thee unto, without the good liking
and approbation of God, then thou shalt be able to sustain this
burden.

XIX. 3. "And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called
unto him out of the mountain."]— But Moses went up the hill
unto God, whose voice had called to him, and bidden him to
ascend, &c.

60 PARAPHRASE UPON

4. " And how I bare you on eagles1 wings, and brought you
unto myself."] — And how I carried you, as it were, aloft, above
the reach of all dangers, like as an eagle carrieth her young ones,
supporting and helping them with her wings.

6. "And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an
holy nation."] — Ye shall be, in a special manner, a people devoted
peculiarly to my worship.

10. "Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to
morrow, and let them wash their clothes."] — Go to the people,
and, by due preparation, set them apart these two days, for their
holy appearance before me ; and in a representation of that in
ward cleanness which I require of them, let them wash their very
clothes which they brought with them out of Egypt.

12. "And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about."]
— And thou shalt set limits unto the people, how far they shall
go, and how near they shall dare to come to the hill, &c.

13. "When the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to
the mount."] — When the trumpet, which the angel shall sound to
call the people, shall sound long, then shall the people go up
towards the mountain, unto the place limited unto them.

15. "Come not at your wives."] — Set yourselves apart from
your wives for a time, that your hearts may not be distracted
with any carnal delight, now that they are to be fixed upon
God.

22. "And let the priests also, which come near to the LORD,
sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them."] —
And let those which do the office of the priesthood, namely, the
firstborn of the families, who are wont to offer sacrifices to God,
see that they specially be devoutly and holily prepared for this
great appearance of God.

XX. 5. "For I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation of them that hate me."] — I am so affected to
you my people, as a loving husband to his wife, whom he cannot
endure to set her affections upon any other: where I see, there
fore, a succession of iniquity from the fathers to children, both
which hate to be reformed, I punish it not only eternally in them
selves, but temporally in many generations after them.

12. "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may
be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee."] —
Honour those which are any way set over thee, and give them

EXODUS XIX. 4.— XXI. 7. 61

due reverence and obedience, for conscience sake ; that God may
give thee a long and happy life in this thy promised land upon
earth, and an eternal life, figured by the other, in that true land
of rest, which is above.

17. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt
not covet thy neighbour's wife," &c.] — Thou shalt not entertain so
much as the very first motions of unlawful desires towards aught
that is thy neighbour's, &«-, but shalt rest well contented with
thy own.

23. "Ye shall not make with me gods of silver."] — You shall
not make, in competition with me, gods of silver, &c.

24. "An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt
sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy
sheep, and thine oxen.""] — Until the time of your settling, and the
set residence of God in his tabernacle and temple, you shall only
make your altars of earth, that may not continue : and thereon,
in an homely manner, shall you offer all your sacrifices ; whether
those which you offer up in acknowledgment of the sovereignty
of God, or those which you offer in suit of further favour or thank
fulness for a favour received.

XXI. j. "Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set
before them."] — Now these are the civil or judicial laws which
thou shalt appoint for the government of the Israelites.

2. "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve :
and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing."] — Howsoever
thou keep a servant of the Gentiles in a perpetual bondage, yet
thou shalt not have that power over an Hebrew ; but in the year
of liberty and intermission, which is the seventh year, thou shalt
release him without any composition.

4. " If his master have given him a wife."] — If his master, upon
his own liking or desire, shall allow him to marry with a foreigner,
which is his maidservant.

6. " And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl :
and he shall serve him for ever."] — His master shall bore through
his ear to the door ; whether as a reproachful mark of his perpe
tual servitude, or as a signification of his fastening himself unto
that house, so as he will not nor may not pass from it without the
liking of his master.

7. " And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she
shall not go out as the menservants do."]— Likewise if a man sell
his daughter as yet under age, with intention that she should

62 PARAPHRASE UPON

marry him that buys her, if she be dismissed, it shall be upon
better conditions than an ordinary servant.

8. " If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to
himself, then shall he let her be redeemed," &c.]— If she please
not her master, so far as that he betrothes her to himself, then
shall he suffer another, one of her friends, to redeem her of him ;
but he shall have no power to sell her to a stranger, seeing he
hath deceived her expectation of marrying him.

g. " lie shall deal with her after the manner of daughters."] —
He shall so deal with her, in giving her to marriage, as if she had
been a free woman.

ii. " And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go
out free without money."] — But if he do not allow unto her food,
raiment, and houseroom convenient for her, then shall she go out
free at the time of liberty, or of such his denial, upon judgment,
without any repayment of the money for which she was sold.

13. "And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into
his hand."] — If a man have not laid wait for another, but casually,
without any purpose of his, shall by God's disposition do some act
which might procure the death of another.

2i. " He shall not be punished: for he is his money."] — For
he bought him with his money ; therefore, not purposely striking
him to kill him, he shall not be punished ; since he is already
punished in his loss.

XXII. 2. " If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that
he die."] — If a thief be found breaking into thy house by night,
and be smitten in the act by thee unto death, &c.

11." Then shall an oath of the LORD be between them both."]
—They shall be put to swear by the name of God, &c.

25. " If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by
thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer."] — If thou lend money
to an Israelite, those especially which are poor and borrow upon
need, thou shalt not take any increase for the use of it.

26. " If thou at all take thy neighbour's raiment to pledge,"
&c.] — If thou take of thy poor neighbour any of his necessary
raiment, whether for the day or night, as a pledge for money
borrowed of him.

29. " Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits,
and of thy liquors."] — Of all kind of thy fruits, whether dried in
their kind or strained into liquor, thou shalt pay duly thy tithes
and first fruits unto God.

EXODUS XXL 8.— XXIV. 4. 63

31. "Neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts
in the field."] —Neither shall you eat any part of that beast
which was torn in pieces by any other beast, whether clean or
unclean.

XXIII. i. "Put not thine hand with the wicked to be an un
righteous witness."] — Thou shalt not give thine assistance or
countenance unto a wicked man in a false testimony.

3. "Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause."]
— Thou shalt not suffer the regard of poverty itself to make thee
partial in a case of judgment.

7. "The innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not
justify the wicked."] — Thou shalt not pronounce a sentence of
death upon an innocent man ; for if thou do, and herein deal
wickedly, howsoever thou mayest escape the censure of men, yet
my judgment thou shalt not escape.

8. "And thou shalt take no gift."] — Thou shalt not take any
bribe, to draw thee unto partiality in any cause.

13. "And make no mention of the names of other gods."] —
Ye shall not, with any approbation, so much as mention the names
of other gods.

17. "Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before
the Lord GOD."] — Three times in the year shall all thy men
children, of sufficient age, whether bond or free, present them
selves in the place of God's public service, which is his tabernacle.

18. "Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with lea
vened bread."] — During these solemn times of sacrificing unto me,
ye shall not eat any leavened bread.

1 9. " Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk."] — Thou
shalt not be so cruel in thine oblations as to seethe a kid in that
milk of the dam which was given it for nourishment.

21 ." For my name is in him."] — Because my power and divi
nity is in him.

28. " And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out
the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee."] —
And, that I may herein approve myself the God of hosts, I will,
by small means, confound thine adversaries ; for, as I afflicted the
Egyptians with frogs and lice, so will I vex the Canaanites with
hornets, which shall sting them to death, &c.

31. " And from the desert unto the river."] — From the wilder
ness of Sur unto the great river Euphrates.

XXIV.^. "And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD."] —

64 PARAPHRASE UPON

And Moses wrote all these words of the Lord, which concern
either the civil government of the Jews or the ceremonies of
God's service.

5. "And he sent young men of the children of Israel."] — And
he sent some chosen young men, of the firstborn of the several
tribes, which offered, &c.

7. " And he took the book of the covenant, &c."] — After Moses
took the book, wherein he had written that covenant betwixt God
and his people in the judicial arid ceremonial laws, &c.

8. " Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath
made with you."] — Behold that blood, whereby the covenant made
betwixt God and you is signified to be confirmed.

i o. " And they saw the God of Israel : and there was under
his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it
were the body of heaven in his clearness."] — And they saw some
visible signs of the presence of God ; and at the lower part of that
brightness, there was a clear shining blue pavement, as it were of
sapphire, or like to a sky when it is clear.

IT. "Also they saw God, and did eat and drink."] — They saw
God, in these signs of his manifestation ; and yet lived in health
and soundness of body.

XXV. 5. " And shittim wood."] — Of a precious and durable
wood, which grows not far from Sinai.

1 6. "And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I
shall give thee."] — So thou shalt put into the ark the two tables
of the law, which I shall give thee, as a witness of my covenant
with my people.

17. "And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold."] —
Thou shalt make a cover for the ark of pure gold ; which shall
serve also as an oracle, from which God shall give answers to thee,
upon all occasions.

23. " Thou shalt also make a table o/'shittim wood."] — Now in
the outward sanctuary also thou shalt make a table of costly and
sweet wood, &c.

30. " And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me
alway."] — And thou shalt set upon the table twelve loaves of
bread, which, because they shall be ever presented before my face,*
are termed justly, The bread of presence.

XX\TI. 2. "The length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty
cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits."] — The length
of each curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, that so ten may be

EXODUS XXV. 5.— XXVII. 2i. 65

for the breadth of the roof of the tent, and nine on each side may
hang down, within one cubit of the ground, &c.

7. " And thou shalt make curtains orgeats' hair to be a cover
ing upon the tabernacle."] — Also thou shalt make another rank
of curtains, of a meaner value, namely of goats1 hair woven into
cloth, &c.

14. "And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams'
skins dyed red, and a covering above o/'badgers'1 skins."] — More
over, to defend the tabernacle from weather, thou shalt make
a third covering for it, of rams' skins dyed red ; and a fourth yet
above that, next to the weather, of badgers' skins, which are yet
stronger and coarser.

23. "And two boards shalt thou make for the corners of the
tabernacle in the two sides."] — And two shalt thou make in the
corners of the tabernacle, lined with other boards for more streno-th

O

of carriage, on each side of the tabernacle.

26. "And thou shalt make bars o/" shittim wood; five for the
boards of the one side of the tabernacle."] — And thou shalt make
five rows of bars, to go through the boards on each side of the
tabernacle.

31." And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and
scarlet."] — Moreover, thou shalt make a veil for the Holy of
Holies, of blue silk, &c.

XXVII. i . " And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood,
five cubits long, and five cubits broad.'"] — Thou shalt make the
inner part of the altar of shittim wood ; the outward part whereof
shall be all covered on both sides with brass.

Ibid. "The altar shall be four-square.""] — The altar shall be,
for length and breadth, four-square.

2. "And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners
thereof."] — The four corners shall have, as it were, four horns of
the same matter whereof the altar is made, upon the tops thereof.

3. "And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his
shovels."] — Vessels to carry away the ashes, and shovels to take
them up.

8. "Hollow with boards shalt thou make it."] — Thou shalt
make the altar hollow with boards, like unto a boarded coffer,
without either bottom or cover.

9. "And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle."] — And
thou shalt make a court to compass in the tabernacle.

21. " Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morn-

BP. HALL, VOL. III. P

66 PARAPHRASE UPON

ing before the LORD."] — Aaron and his sons shall dress and tend
them every morning and evening ; kindling them in the evening,
and cleansing them in the morning.

XXVIII. 2. "And thou shalt make holy garments."]— Thou
shalt make garments, consecrated to the holy uses of my service.

3. "Whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom."] — Whom
I have endued with an extraordinary skill for these exquisite
works.

4. "And these are the garments which they shall make; a
breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a
mitre, and a girdle."] — These shall be the garments thou shalt
make proper to the high priest : a breastplate for his breast, a
rich ephod for his shoulders, a robe with bells and pomegranates
for the whole body, a rich embroidered coat under that, a mitre
for his head, a girdle for his loins, &c.

6. "And they shall make the ephod o/"gold," &c.] — They shall
make a peculiar ephod to the high priest, of gold, &c.

12. "For stones of memorial unto the children of Israel."] —
As a sign whereby the children of Israel may know that their
memory is presented to God, and that they are had in remem
brance of God.

15. "And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment."] —
And thou shalt make the breastplate, which thou shalt wear in
thy consultations with God, in the causes of judgment.

1 6. "Foursquare it shall be being doubled."] — Thou shalt
make it of the same stuff, doubled for the more strength, and
better convenience of holding the stones.

30. "And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the
Urim and the Thummim ; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart,"
&c.j — Also thou shalt inclose within the breastplate, wherewith
thou shalt consult with God, these two secret signs of knowledge
and holiness, which shall be upon the heart of Aaron, to signify
what is required to be within his heart.

^35. "And his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto
the holy place before the LORD, and when he cometh out, that he
die not."] — His sound shall be heard when he goeth in and
cometh forth of the holy place ; and thus addressing himself and
the people, with awful reverence and devotion, to the service of
God, he shall not die ; whereas, if he, abruptly entering into the
place, shall be an occasion of the people's negligence and his own
profanation of God's service, he shall die for it.

EXODUS XXVITI. 2.— XXX. 6. 67

38. "And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron mav
bear the iniquity of the holy things," &c.] — So shall it be upon
Aaron's forehead, that Aaron hereby may show that in significa
tion of the perfect High Priest, which was to come, he took upon
him the expiation of all those sins and infirmities which the Israel
ites should be guilty of in their offerings to God.

41. "And thou shalt anoint them, and consecrate them, and
sanctify them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's
office."] — Thou shalt anoint them, and prepare their persons for
this service of mine.

XXIX. 4. "And thou shalt wash them with water."] — And
shalt wash them all the body over with the water of the laver.

9. " And the priest's office shall be theirs for a perpetual sta
tute : and thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons."] — And the
priest's office shall be thus continued to Aaron and his sons, until
the time that all these legal rites shall be finished by him whom
they serve to signify.

10. " And Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the
head of the bullock."] — And Aaron and his sons shall lay their
hands upon the head of the calf, to signify their interest in that
sacrifice, and to acknowledge their worthiness to die in that beast,
which, in the signification of the true sacrifice, was put to death
for them.

15. "Thou shalt also take one ram; and Aaron and his sons
shall put their hands upon the head of the ram."] — So after this
calf is offered as a sacrifice and expiation for the sins of Aaron
and his sons, then thou shalt cause them to offer a ram for a burnt
offering.

37. "Whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy."] — What
soever toucheth the altar shall thereby be sanctified, so as it may
not be any more put to any ordinary or profane use.

42. " Where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee."] —
Where I will, as it were, appoint to meet thee familiarly, and to
declare my will to thee by my servants.

45. " And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will
be their God."] — And I will make a clear manifestation of my
gracious presence among the children of Israel, both to direct and
preserve them.

XXX. 6. " And thou shalt put it before the vail."]— After, thou
shalt set it close before the veil that distinguishes the holy place
from the holiest of all.

68 PARAPHRASE UPON

9. " Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon.11] — Ye shall offer
no incense of any other composition, &c.

10. " And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it
once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements."]
— And the high priest shall once a year put the blood of the sin
offering upon the horns of the altar, to make an expiation of the
defects which had passed that year in God's service.

12. " When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after
their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his
soul unto the LOED, when thou numberest them ; that there be
no plague among them," &c.] — When thou takest an account of
the number of the children of Israel, then shall they give every
man half a shekel, to testify that he holds his life of that God
whose service that shall be used to maintain ; which shall be paid
of every man, upon pain of the displeasure of God, who shall
plague the contempt of whosoever refuses thus to contribute to
his service.

13. " Half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary."] — Half
a side (that is, according to our current money, the value of fifteen
pence sterling) according to the standard, which shall be kept in
the sanctuary.

33. " Shall even be cut off from his people."] — He shall die the
death ; whether by the immediate hand of God or by the sword
of the magistrate.

XXXI. 2. " I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri :"]
— I have singled out, as if I had by his name called him from
others, Bezaleel, the son of Uri, and &c.

3. " And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom,
and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of
workmanship."] — Whom I have endued with this gift of the spirit
of God, to be able both perfectly to conceive and curiously to work
all these things which belong to the tabernacle.

6. " And in the hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put
wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee."]
— And in the hearts of all those that are apt for these businesses
have I put a greater apprehension and dexterity of working all
these things that I have commanded.

13. " Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying,
Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep : for it is a sign between me
and you," &c.] — Although I could be willing that these works of
the sanctuary should be finished, yet I would not have them so

EXODUS XXX. 9.— XXXII. 32. 69

followed, as that ye should work them upon the sabbath day ; for
that day is a common sign betwixt us of your holding me for
your Creator, and of my special interest in you above all other
people.

18. " Two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the
finger of God."] — He gave him two tables of the law, which testi
fied unto the people the will of God, which spake and wrote it.

XXXII. i. "Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for
as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of
Egypt, we wot not what is become of him."]— Stir up thyself,
and make some visible image, that may bring to our minds the
presence of God ; and may give us a sensible representation of
his going before us and assisting us : sithence both Moses is gone,
and the cloud which was wont to direct us hath stood still thus
long.

4. " And he received t/iem at their hand, and fashioned it with
a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf : and they said,
These be thy gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up out of the
land of Egypt."] — Who received them at their hands, and, ac
cording to the people's desire, cast it in a mould framed for that
purpose, and polished it afterwards with tools ; and the people
said to each other, This is a representation, 0 Israel, of that God
of thine which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.

5. "And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and
Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the
LORD."] — When Aaron saw the importunity of the people he
yielded to have an altar built before the calf; and proclaimed pub
licly, To morrow shall be the day wherein ye shall solemnly wor
ship God in this calf which is made.

10. "Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot
against them," &c.] — Now therefore do not thou, after thy wonted
manner, pray so instantly for their remission ; which if thou do,
so great is my respect unto thee, that my mercy will not suffer a
revenge to light upon them ; only be thou silent, for whose sake
I forbare them, and then shall my wrath show itself, &c.

14. "And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to
do unto his people."] — Then the Lord, at Moses's request, did
not go on to bring that evil upon the Israelites which he had con
ditionally threatened against them.

32. "Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin — ; and if not, blot
me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written."]
Therefore now, if thou wilt pardon this their sin, thy mercy will be

70 PARAPHRASE UPON

so much more magnified by how much their sin is more heinous ;
but, rather than thou shouldest not, since I know thy glory with
men doth so much depend upon it, I could be for thy sake contented
even to be cast away myself from thee, at least to be wiped out of
the catalogue of living men here upon earth.

34. " Behold, mine Angel shall go before thee : nevertheless in
the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them."] — I will give
them the same protection by my Angel which they have had,
but I will notwithstanding find a time to correct them for this
their offence.

XXXIII. 2. "And I will send an angel before thee."]— I will
send a created angel to safeguard and direct thee, &c.

3. "For I will not go up in the midst of thee/'] — For I will
not, in that familiar manner that I was wont, converse with thee,
and work wonderfully for thee, &c.

5. " Therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may
know what to do unto thee."] — Therefore now put off thy costly
raiment, and humble thyself before me, that according to the mea
sure of thine humiliation or obstinacy I may proportion out my
dealings with thee.

7. " And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the
camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the
congregation."] — Then Moses took a special tent, wherein public
service should be done to God, and pitched it without the host,
afar off; and called it the Tent of the congregation, &c.

u. " And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man
speaketh unto his friend."] — And the Lord gave unto Moses most
familiar tokens and representations of his presence ; speaking by
audible voices unto him, as one friend imparts his counsels to an
other.

17. "And I know thee by name."] — I have taken special no
tice of thee above all others.

XXXIV. 6. "And the LORD passed by before him."] — So the
Lord, in some sensible signs of his presence, passed before him.

10. " Before all thy people I will do marvels," &c. — And I will
do strange miracles for thy sake, both in the wilderness and in
Canaan, &c.

17. "Thou shalt make thee no molten gods."] — Thou shalt
make thee no images to represent God ; whether molten, or carved,
or painted, or howsoever framed for this purpose.

19. See Exod. xiii. 12.

29. " That Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while

EXODUS XXXII. 34.— XL. 35. 71

he talked with him," &c.] — Now Moses knew not that his face
had a certain bright shining and majesty imprinted in it by God,
in his conference with him.

XXXV. 3. "Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations
upon the sabbath day."] — Unless it be for a necessary use, ye
shall not so much as take pains to kindle a fire for the dressing of
any provision on the sabbath day.

5. See chap. xxv. in the whole sequel.

10. "And every wise hearted among you shall come, and make
all that the LORD hath commanded."] — And all to whom the Lord
hath given dexterity of working in these kinds, shall set them
selves to make all that the Lord hath commanded concerning the
tabernacle.

30. See chap. xxxi. 2,3, &c.

XXXVI. See chap. xxvi. in the whole.

XXXVII. See chap. xxv. in the whole.

XXXVIII. See chap, xxvii. in the whole.

8. " And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of
brass, of the looking-glasses of the women" &c.] — Also he made
a great laver, to wash the priests, and to cleanse the sacrifices ;
and both the foot and frame of it was made of that brass and
shining metal whereof the women's lookingglasses were made,
which now devoutly gave these instruments of their vanity to
holy uses.

21. "This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle
of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of
Moses, /or the service of the Levites," &c.J — These are the parts of
the tabernacle, that is, the tabernacle that witnesseth the presence
of God to his people ; all the parts whereof, by the commandment
of Moses, were, at the taking down and erecting, committed to the
charge of the Levites, by Ithamar, the son of Aaron, which was
set over the Levites.

XXXIX. See chap, xxviii. in the whole.

XL. 35. "And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the
congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of
the LORD filled the tabernacle."] — So Moses, at that time, could
not, for reverence of the place, enter into the tabernacle of the
congregation; because God, now, at the first consecration of it,
did so gloriously manifest himself; not only in the sign of the
cloud upon the tabernacle, but also of exceeding glory and bright
ness within the tabernacle.

72 PARAPHRASE UPON

LEVITICUS.

I. 2. "If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye
shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the
flock."] — If any of you offer an ordinary sacrifice unto the Lord,
ye shall offer your sacrifice of those cattle which are most common
for their use, namely, beeves, and sheep, or goats.

3. " If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd."] — If it be
a sacrifice to be consumed by fire, of beeves from the herd.

5. " And he shall kill the bullock before the LORD."] — And the
priest shall kill the bullock before the Lord for him.

II. i . "And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD."]
— When any man will voluntarily, besides the set occasions, offer
a meat offering unto the Lord.

12. "As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them
unto the LORD," &c.] — In this oblation of the firstfruits only, ye
shall offer leaven unto the Lord, in the two loaves which shall be
for the shake offering. Whereof see Levit. xxiii. 17, &c.

III. i. " And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he
offer it of the herd."] — And if his oblation be a peace offering,
that is, such as whereby the offerer doth thankfully present
himself to God, acknowledging to have received all blessings from
him, &c.

3. And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering an
offering made by fire unto the LORD ; the fat that covereth the
inwards."] — So the priest shall offer of the peace offering, the fat
that covereth the inwards, &c. as a sacrifice to be consumed by
fire unto the Lord.

IV. 3. " If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the
sin of the people ; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath
sinned, a young bullock without blemish."] — If the priest, which
is anointed, and thereby consecrated to God, shall sin, so as occa
sion may be given therefore unto the people to offend, then shall
he, according to the greater eminence of his place, offer for his sin
a young bullock, &c.

4. "And shall lay his hand upon the bullock's head, and kill
the bullock before the LORD."] — He shall put his hand upon the
bullock's head, in token that that sin of his is transferred to him
that is the true propitiatory sacrifice for sin, &c.

12. "Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the
camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn

LEVITICUS I. 2.— VIII. 8. 73

him on the wood with fire."] — So he shall cause all the rest of
the bullock, besides the blood, the fat, the kidneys, and the
caul, to be carried out of the host, into some clean place, to be
consumed : both to show detestation unto the sin for which it is
offered; and to signify, that the true sacrifice must be offered
without the gates.

V. i J . " He shall bring for his offering the tenth part of an
ephah of fine flour ; he shall put no oil upon it, neither shall he
put any frankincense thereon : for it is a sin offering."] — He
shall bring the quantity of a pottle of fine flour, as an offering
for his sin : he shall put neither oil nor frankincense upon it ;
for these two are figures of grace and obedience, wherewith sin
hath no affinity.

15. " If a soul commit a trespass through ignorance, in the holy
things of the LORD ; then shall he bring for his trespass unto the
LORD a ram without blemish out of the flocks with thy estimation
by shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary."] — If a man
shall, through ignorance, do any act whereby he offends, in the
use of any thing that is consecrated to God; whether, in the
omission of any due circumstance concerning it, or in misemploy
ing it to any other purpose than that whereto it is set apart ; he
shall bring to the Lord, as an offering for such trespass, a ram
without any blemish, out of the flocks, worth, in the priest's
valuation, two shekels of silver at the least, according to the
largest proportion of the shekel, which is that of the sanctuary,
weighing three hundred and twenty grains.

VI. 1 6. " In the holy place ; in the court of the tabernacle of
the congregation they shall eat it."] — In the court of the sanc
tuary, where these holy oblations were dressed.

1 8. "Every one that toucheth them shall be holy."] — Every
one that toucheth them shall be beforehand sanctified, and free
from all legal pollutions.

21. " And the baken pieces of the meat offering."] — The pieces
of the cake, which shall be broken for the use of the meat offer
ing by the priest.

VII. 1 8. "It shall not be imputed unto him.'1]— He shall re
ceive no benefit by it.

20. " Shall bear his iniquity, that hath his uncleanness upon
him."] — Shall suffer the punishment of his iniquity, that hath not
taken the prescribed course for the expiating of his uncleanness.

VIII. 8. " He put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thum-

74 PARAPHRASE UPON

mim."] — He put in the breastplate those two precious stones,
which signified light and perfection ; by the means whereof the
people should receive answers "from God.

15. "To make reconciliation upon it."] — That it might be
duly prepared to receive those sacrifices, by which reconciliation
might be made for the sins of the people.

23. " On the tip of Aaron's right ear/' &c.] — To signify, that
the hearing of his ears, and actions of his hands, and motions of
his feet, are and should be sanctified.

29. " It was Moses' part/' &c.] — It was the portion appointed
for Moses, in the right of that priesthood, which he did yet ex
traordinarily execute.

35. " Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the tabernacle of
the congregation day and night seven days, and keep the charge
of the LORD, that ye die not."] — Therefore ye shall not go out
of the bounds of the court-yard of the tabernacle for the space
of seven days and seven nights ; and shall duly keep all these
observations which the Lord hath enjoined you ; that so God
may not be provoked to strike you with death.

IX. 6. " And the glory of the LORD shall appear unto you."] —
The Lord shall give you some visible and glorious sign of his
presence.

23, 24. "And the glory of the LORD appeared to all the
people. And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and
consumed upon the altar the burnt offering."] — And, in the sight
of all the people, there came a fire, whether out of the tabernacle
or from heaven, and fell upon the altar, and consumed the sacri
fice of burnt offering, which lay ready upon it.

X. i. "And offered strange fire before the LORD."] — And took
up in their censers common and unsanctified fire, whereon they
burnt the holy incense to the Lord.

6. " Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes ;
lest you die/'] — Give no testimonies of a repining grief, and dis
contentment at this just judgment of God, lest, in his displeasure,
he consume you also, &c.

9. " When ye go into the tabernacle."] — When ye are to go
into the inner court of the tabernacle, there to do your service to
the Lord.

14. " In a clean place."] — In a place free from legal pollution ;
or within the compass of the camp of Israel, or that selected city,
where God will have his worship to be fixed.

LEVITICUS VIII. 15.— XIV. 49. 7.5

19. "Behold, this day have they offered their sin offering and
their burnt offering before the LORD; and such/' &c.] — Behold,
the children of Israel have this day offered their sin offering and
their burnt offering before the Lord ; but as for me, you do well
know what cause of just sorrow I have had this day, in that
heavy judgment which hath befallen my sons ; and if, in this
mourning and sad dejectedness, I had eaten of the sin offering,
how could it have been well taken of that God who requires
cheerfulness in all that thus partake of his holy things ?

XL 2, 3. " These are the beasts, &c. Whatsoever parteth the
hoof, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat."]
— I would have your diet a figure of your conversation ; beasts,
to be figures of men : those men, which put just differences be
twixt their actions, and that do meditate and chew upon the law
of God continually, those are fit for you to converse with, and to
be received of you into your entire fellowship ; these are repre
sented to you by beasts that divide the hoof, and chew the cud.

10. "All that have not fins and scales in the seas, &c. shall be
an abomination unto you."] — The fins of the fish are for steering of
their motion ; the scales are for smoothness of passage, for safe
guard, for ornament : those men, that have no knowledge and
faith to guide them, no good dispositions to set them forward, nor
good works to set them forth, are not for your entire conver
sation .

XII. 2. " Her infirmity."] — That sickness which, in ordinary
course, is every month incident to her sex.

XIII. 13. ".//"the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall
pronounce him clean that hath the plague : it is all turned white :
he is clean.11] — If the whole flesh be so covered over, that there
is no appearance of difference in the skin, it is a sign that the
strength of nature hath wholly driven out that inward matter
which was the cause of the leprosy ; and therefore it argues, that
the party is delivered from his disease.

45. " He shall put a covering upon his upper lip."] — In sign of
mourning for this judgment, and for restraint of that breath which
is infectious, he shall muffle up himself.

XIV. 45. " Into an unclean place."]— Unto some place which
is in itself unhallowed, and is now polluted by these unclean ma
terials that are cast upon it.

49. " And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and
cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop."]— There shall be the same

76 PARAPHRASE UPON

ceremonies for the cleansing of the house that are appointed for
the man; such as are clear types of the blood of the Messias,
cleansing the soul from the leprosy of sin.

XV. 2. "AVhen any man hath a running issue out of his flesh."]
— When any one hath an ordinary and insensible passage of seed
in the running of the reins.

31." Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their
uncleannesses."] — Thus shall ye teach the children of Israel to
separate themselves each from other in cases of their legal un
cleannesses, and to cleanse themselves from their pollutions.

XVI. 2. " That he come not at all times into the holy place
within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark."] —
That he presume not to come oftener than once a year into the
Holy of Holies, which is within the veil ; where God, in a special
manner, manifesteth his presence between the cherubims in the
mercy seat, the cover of the ark.

19. "And hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of
Israel."] — The sins and infirmities of God's people in their devo
tions, do, in a sort, defile the holy place and altar : the high priest
shall thus expiate those sins of the people, which have polluted the
place and vessels of God's service.

22. " And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto
a land not inhabited."] — As the slain goat shall represent Christ
dying for sin, so the escaping goat shall represent him freed from
death, for our full justification, and taking away the sins of the
world, so as that they shall not appear in the sight of God to their
condemnation.

29. " On the tenth day ye shall afflict your souls."] — It shall
be a day of great and solemn humiliation, in fasting and all kind
of sad and penetential devotion.

XVII. 3. "That killeth an ox, or lamb."]— That killeth an ox
or lamb, with an intention of sacrifice unto God.

XVIII. 6. " To uncover their nakedness."] — To lie with them,
or to have carnal knowledge of them.

8. "It is thy father's nakedness."] — That nakedness is proper
for none but thy father to uncover.

1 8. " Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister," &c.J — Hav
ing one wife, thou shalt not take another wife besides her during
her life ; that the emulation, which will thereupon arise, may not
be a perpetual vexation to her whom thou hast by lawful wedlock
made one flesh with thee.

LEVITICUS XV. 2.— XXI. 1 1 . 77

2 ] . " Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire
to Molech."] — Thou shalt not give up any of thy sons or daughters
as a sacrifice to Molech, the idol of the Ammonites ; either to pass
between his two fires, as in way of consecration to him, or to be
consumed by the fire of that idol, as a burnt offering to him.

XIX. 16. " Neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy
neighbour."] — Thou shalt not be any cause or furtherer of shed
ding the blood of thy neighbour ; neither willingly forbear to
hinder any act done against his life.

19. "Neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen
come upon thee."] — To teach thee how God loveth simplicity of
heart in all thy carriage and disposition, thou shalt not be al
lowed mixtures and compositions, so much as in thine outward
apparel.

23. " Three years shall it (the tree) be as uncircumcised unto
you."] — During the first three years after the plantation thereof,
the fruit of those trees shall be unlawful to be eaten, or to be put
to any other profitable use.

27. " Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither
shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard/'] — Ye shall not imitate
the heathen fashion of your idolatrous neighbours in cutting your
hair round ; neither shall you, after their manner in their mourn
ings, deform your faces, by shaving off the hair of your beard.

28. "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead,
nor print any marks upon you."] — Ye shall not, according to the
heathen manner, cut your flesh while ye mourn for the dead ; nor
make any impression in your skin and flesh, as marks of your
idolatry and superstition.

XX. 9. " Every one that curseth his father or his mother."]—
Whosoever revileth or speaketh reproachfully of either father or
mother, let him be put to death.

XXI. i . " There shall none be defiled for the dead among his
people."] — None of the inferior priests may either touch a dead
corpse, or come into the room where it is, if it be the corpse of
one not near allied to him.

5. " They shall not make," &c.]— Vide xix. ver. 27.

n. " Neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile him
self for his father, or for his mother."] — However it may be law
ful for the inferior priest to mourn for or to be present with the
corpse of those which, in nearness of blood or alliance, they have
relation unto ; yet the high priest shall not condescend to any

act or sign of public mourning, no not for his very parents ; nor
go into the room where their corpses are laid.

15. "Neither shall he profane his seed among his people."]
— If he shall marry with any of these forbidden persons, the issue
which he shall have by her shall be accounted as unhallowed, and
shall not be capable of succeeding him in executing the priest's
office.

1 8. " Or any thing superfluous."] — Or that hath any part or
limb more than he should, or monstrously excessive in the pro
portion thereof.

XXII. 14. " If a man eat of the holy thing unwittingly, then
he shall put the fifth part unto it, and shall give it unto the
priest."] — If any Israelite, that is not of the priest's family, shall
ignorantly eat of those holy things that are appropriated by God's
ordinance to the priests, he shall pay the price of that whereof he
eateth, and add withal a fifth part more of the full worth, by way
of satisfaction to the priest.

25. "Neither from a stranger's hand shall ye offer the bread
of your God of any of these."] — Not only shall ye refuse to offer
blemished and unperfect sacrifices from the hands of Israelites ;
but if any heathen man, who is a stranger from the commonwealth
of Israel, shall offer to present any such blemished or unworthy
oblation to you, ye shall also reject it, as that which is unlawful to
be offered to God.

XXIII. 27. Vide xvi. ver. 29.

39. "Shall be a sabbath."] — On the first and on the eighth day
ye shall rest from your labours.

XXIV. 14. " Let all that heard him lay their hands upon his
head."] — Let all that heard him, as in way of ratification of their
testimony, lay their hands on his head ; as thereby professing that
the blood of the blasphemer shall be upon his own head, as who
doth most worthily suffer for his sin.

XXV. 6. " And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you ;"
&c.] — And that fruit, of what kind soever, which groweth upon
thy land, in the seventh year shall serve indifferently for meat
and drink for the servant and stranger, as well as the owner ; and
shall be freely taken, and used accordingly.

23. " For the land is mine ;" &c.] — The land is mine in a more
peculiar manner ; as that which I have set apart to be the in
heritance of my chosen people on earth, and to be a figure of their
happy and glorious inheritance in heaven.

LEVITICUS XXI. 15.— XXVII. 29. 79

24. " And in all the land of your possession yc shall grant a
redemption for the land."] — In all the land which ye possess ye
shall suffer a redemption to be given by him that sold or mort
gaged it ; and shall accept thereof in the appointed year of
jubilee.

34. " But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be
sold."] — If the Levites might sell their houses in their cities, yet
the fields, which are about the suburbs of the city, three thousand
cubits in extent from the walls thereof, may not at all be aliened
or sold.

XXVI. 5. " And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage/']
— You shall have a continued succession of blessings and variety
of increase of all kinds of fruits, one in the neck of another ; so as
no sooner shall the threshing of your corn be finished than your
vintage shall come in hand.

24. " I will punish you yet seven times."] — I will bring divers
and frequent judgments upon you for your sins.

26. "-And when I have broken the staff of your bread."] — And
when I have brought upon you famine and scarcity, and have be
reaved you of that which is the staff of your life, bread, &c.

34. " Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths."] — Then shall
the land be quiet ; as being delivered from those wicked inhabit
ants which brought a curse upon it ; and from those busy labours
wherewith it was worn out and torn up continually.

XXVII. 1 6. " And if a man shall sanctify unto the LORD some
part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be ac
cording to the seed thereof: an homer of barley seed shall be
valued at fifty shekels of silver."] — And if a man will consecrate
unto the Lord some part of that field, which by inheritance is de
scended to him, and would redeem it ; it shall be valued according
to the proportion of that seed which is fit and sufficient to be sown
in that parcel : every ten bushels of barley seed shall be rated at
fifty shekels of silver.

25. " Shekel of the sanctuary."] — See Lev. v. 15.

29. " None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be
redeemed."] — No creature which, under a solemn vow or curse,
shall be devoted to destruction, shall be redeemed by any price
whatsoever, whether it be man or beast; but shall undergo that
death to which it was solemnly devoted.

80 PARAPHRASE UPON

NUMBERS. •

I. 51. " The stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death."]
— Any Israelite whosoever, being not of the tribe of Levi, if he
offer to meddle with the ark, shall surely die ; either by the
immediate hand of God or by the hand of human justice and
authority.

II. 2. " Far off about the tabernacle."] — The measure of at
least two thousand cubits, shall be the distance betwixt the tents
of Israel and the holy tabernacle of God.

III. 7. " And they shall keep his charge.11] — They shall do that
service which Aaron, as from the Lord, shall appoint unto them.

9. " Thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron and to his sons."]
— Thou shalt design and appoint the Levites to attend upon
Aaron and his sons in the holy ministration.

12. "I have taken the Levites from among the children of
Israel instead of all the firstborn," &c.] — Whereas, before, the
firstborn of the family was ordained to execute the office of the
priesthood, and to offer sacrifices for the rest, now I have confined
this office to one tribe alone ; so as only those of Levi shall, instead
of the firstborn, be set apart for this work.

IV. 7. "The continual bread shall be thereon."] — That shew-
bread, which is appointed to be continually set upon the table be
fore the Lord; being every sabbath to be renewed in a perpetual
succession.

V. 6. " Shall commit any sin that men commit."] — When a
man or woman shall commit any sin of frailty or infirmity, which
is commonly incident to every man.

7. " He shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof,
and add unto it the fifth part.^] — By way of recompense, he shall
pay the price of that thing which he hath taken away, or wherein
he hath done the wrong ; and add, moreover, a fifth part of the
worth as a satisfaction to the party wronged.

12. " If any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against
him."] — If any man's wife shall leave off the conversation of her
husband, and offend against his bed.

1 8. "The bitter water."] — That water, which shall prove bit
terly afflictive and deadly to her, if she be guilty. Vide ver. 27.

VI. 5. " Shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow."] — To
signify the continuance of his holy consecration and his subjection
to God, he shall suffer his hair to grow unto the length.

NUMBERS I. 51. -IX. 15. 81

21. " For his separation, beside that that his hand shall get."]
—This offering he shall make to the Lord for his Nazariteship ;
besides that voluntary oblation which he shall moreover make
upon any other occasion unto God.

27. " And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel ;
and I will bless them."] — Laying their hands upon the children
of Israel, they shall call upon my name for a blessing ; and it
shall be given by me according to their prayers.

VII. 2. " The princes offered."] — The princes of Israel, by their
several gifts, testified their joyful celebration of the dedication of
the tabernacle and the altar.

8. "Four wagons and eight oxen he gave unto the sons of
Merari."] — To the sons of Merari, whose charge was the heaviest
carriage that belonged to the tabernacle, as the boards and pillars
thereof, he gave a double proportion of wagons and oxen, for the
more easy removal thereof.

89. "When Moses, &c. to speak with him."] — When Moses
was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation, to attend upon
the Lord, and to receive his commandments.

VIII. 2. "The seven lamps shall give light over against the
candlestick."] — The seven lamps shall give light, round about the
bulk or shaft of the candlestick, on all sides.

ii. Aaron shall offer the Levites before the LORD for an offer-
ing of the children of Israel.1"'] — Aaron shall present the Levites
before the Lord, as persons consecrated to God ; whom the chief
of Israel, in the name of all the rest, shall devote to the holy
service of God, in their behalf, as designed and allowed by them
to offer up their oblations.

24. " From twenty and five years old and upward they shall
go in to wait upon the service of the tabernacle."] — From the
age of twenty-five years they shall so enter into the tabernacle
as to inform themselves, and to learn, both by institution and
practice, how to perform the services ; and at the age of thirty
years they shall enter upon the execution of their charge.

25. " After fifty years, &c. they shall serve no more."]— They
shall not serve any more, after the age of fifty, in any of the
painful and laborious works of carriage or attendance ; although,
for oversight and aid of advice, no age ought to be exempted.

IX. 15. " And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up
the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testi
mony : and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were an

BP. HALL, VOL. III. G

82 PARAPHRASE UPON

appearance of fire, until the morning."] — In the day that the ta
bernacle was perfectly set up, God gave visible testimony of his
presence therein ; appearing, in the day time, as a cloud in the
Holy of Holies, over the ark ; and, in the night time, as a light
some fire over the same.

1 8. " At the commandment of the LORD the children of Israel
journeyed."] — Upon the will of God, signified really to them by
the stay or removal of the cloud, they disposed of their journey
or abode.

X. 2. "Make thee two trumpets of silver; of one whole piece
shalt thou make them."] — Of one entire piece, beaten out into
length and breadth, shalt thou make each trumpet ; and not of
several parcels beaten together : of silver, for the purity of the
metal ; of one piece, for the unity and perfection of the sound.

3 1 . "Thou mayest be to us instead of eyes.11] — By reason of thy
knowledge and experience thou mayest be a good direction for us.

XI. i. "And when the people complained, it displeased the
LORD : and the LORD heard it ; and his anger was kindled ; and
the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them in
the uttermost parts of the camp."] — And the people murmured
and were discontent at their three days' journey in the wilder
ness, ere they settled in a restingplace ; and the Lord took
notice of their repining ; and his anger was kindled against them,
and showed itself in a sensible judgment upon them ; for he sent
forth a visible fire amongst them, and consumed those that were
in the outer skirts of the camp.

4. " And the mixt multitude that were among them fell a
lusting : and the children of Israel also wept again, and said,
Who shall give us flesh to eat ?"] — And the multitude, which was
a mixed company of native Israelites and of strangers that came
along with them out of Egypt, fell to an earnest longing and
lusting after their old diet, and said, 0 that somebody would now
give us flesh to eat !

7 . " The manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof
as the colour of bdellium.-"] — The manna was, in fashion and
quantity, like to coriander seed ; and the colour of it was as of a
clear white gum.

15. " And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee."] —
If I shall be put to bear the charge and burden of this busy and
troublesome people alone, rather take me away.

17. "I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put

NUMBERS IX. 1 8.— XIV. 8. 83

it upon them."] — I will endue them with the same spiritual gifts
and abilities that 1 have furnished thee withal for the wielding of
this great administration.

18. "Sanctify yourselves against to morrow."] — Make your
selves, by due preparation, of believing and thankful hearts, apt
and capable to receive this new and marvellous blessing from God.

20. " Till it come forth at your nostrils.""] —Until you be over-
cloyed with it.

XII. 6. " If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will
make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto
him in a dream."] — It is my manner, when I would honour any
man with the calling and employment of a prophet, to reveal my
will to that man, either by dreams or visions, which are the two
usual means whereby I am wont to impart myself unto men.

7. "My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my
house."] — But, as for my servant Moses, he is none of the ordi
nary rank of prophets ; him, as whom I have found faithful in all
the service that I have committed unto him, I have thought good
to grace with an especial favour and entireness.

8. " With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently,
and not in dark speeches."] — With him will I speak in a more
familiar manner than with the rest of mankind, even as a man
would talk with his friend, by an immediate revelation of my
self unto him : here shall need no dreams or visions wherein to
convey my will and pleasure unto him ; but his very senses shall
apprehend and perceive the plain and clear demonstration of my
presence, and the notice of my will, by a familiar and sociable
conference.

XIII. 23. " And when they came to the brook of Eshcol."] —
And when they came to the valley, or brook, which afterward,
upon this occasion, was called Eshcol, from the cluster of grapes
which here they cut down.

32. "It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof."] —
Either the air is unwholesome and wastes the inhabitants with
diseases, or the soil is so stubborn and harsh to work upon, that
it spends their bodies with the difficulty of their labours.

33. "We were in our own sight as grasshoppers."] — For sta
ture and strength there seemed to be no less difference betwixt
them and us, than between grasshoppers and men.

XIV. 8. " Floweth with milk and honey."]— Hath abundance
of all provision, both for sustenance and pleasure.

« 2

84 PARAPHRASE UPON

9. " For they are bread for us."] — We shall consume them with
great ease, and feed upon their rich provisions.

10. " And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle."]
— And the Lord gave an apparent sign of his glorious presence
in the cloud, that covered the tabernacle, in the sight of Israel.

2 1 . ' ' All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.""]
The whole earth shall take notice of my righteous judgments,
which I will execute upon this people ; and give unto me the
praise and glory of my justice.

33. "Your children shall bear your whoredoms."] — Your chil
dren, though they shall at last enter into the promised land, yet,
in the mean time, they shall smart for your sins ; that you may be
punished in them.

34. " You shall know my breach of promise."] — Since you have
thus shamefully broken your covenant with me, ye shall know and
feel that those promises which I made to you upon your obedience
shall now be reversed.

40. " We will go up to the place which tho LORD hath pro
mised : for we have sinned."] — We will now, without any further
mutiny, go forward to the promised land, and fight with our ene
mies ; for we do well see and confess, we have sinned against our
God, in this our murmuring and backwardness.

XV. 30. " But the soul that doth aught presumptuously, &c.,
the same reproacheth the LORD ; and that soul shall be cut off
from among his people."] — That man that sinneth in an arrogant
and presumptuous manner, as it were daring God and despiting
heaven, he shall be destroyed by an immediate hand of God ; as
having wilfully affronted the Lord, and called his justice into
question.

XVI. 3. " Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congre
gation is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them."]
— Ye take too much state and greatness upon you : as if you only
might or ought to engross the Lord to yourselves ; since there is
none of the congregation but is quite capable and fit to do those
holy actions which ye have appropriated to yourselves ; and the
Lord would be as ready to testify his acceptation of them.

4. "Moses fell upon his face."] — In a deep sorrow for this pre
sumptuous sin of these princes, and in an humble invocation upon
God, who only could right these proud challenges, Moses cast
himself down upon his face.

5. " Even to morrow the LORD will show who are his, and wlto

NUMBERS XIV. 9.— XXVII. 27. 85

is holy ; and will cause him to come near unto him whom he hath
chosen."]— To morrow the Lord will give a visible proof, whether
he hath set us apart to these his highest services ; and whether
he be well pleased that ye should, without any special calling
thereunto, approach unto his presence to offer sacrifices to him.

7. " Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi."} — Rather
thou, 0 Korah, being one of the tribe of Lcvi, takest too much
upon thee and thine, thus to encroach upon the priests' office ;
which thou shalt well find in the sequel.

14. "Wilt thou put out the eyes of these men?"] — Canst
thou hope so to blind the eyes of these people, that they shall not
discern thy fraudulent, presumptuous, and false dealing with them?

47. "The plague was begun among the people."] — God had
begun to strike the people with a sudden death.

XVII. 13. "Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the taber
nacle of the LORD shall die : shall we be consumed with dying?"]
— We do well see, how deadly a thing it is for us to offer to
meddle with any of the sacred businesses of the tabernacle ; but,
0 Lord, what shall become of us ? Some of us are swallowed up
of the earth ; others of us are consumed by fire ; others, by the
sudden stroke of thy hand : 0 God, wilt thou not be entreated
to take off thy revenging hand from us, till we be all utterly
consumed ?

XVIII. i. "Thou and thy sons and thy father's house with
thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary."] — Thou, and thy
posterity that is descended from the loins of Levi, shall be answer
able for any abuse that is done in the sanctuary.

7. "1. have given the priest's office unto you as a service of
gift."] — I have, of my free choice and gift, designed you to the
office and service of the priesthood.

19. " It is a covenant of salt for ever.""] — It is an incorruptible
and everlasting covenant.

22. " Lest they bear sin.'1] — Lest they suffer death, as the due
punishment of their sin.

24. " But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer
as an heaveoffering unto the LORD, I have given to the Levites to
inherit."]— The tithes of the children of Israel, which they set
apart and consecrate to the Lord, by lifting them up in way of
oblation to God, I have given to the tribe of Levi, as a constant
and perpetual inheritance, to claim and enjoy for ever.

27. " And this your heaveoffering shall be reckoned unto you,

86 PARAPHRASE UPOJS7

as though it were the corn of the thrcshingfloor, and as the fulness
of the winepress."] — And this tenth part, which you shall offer
out of your tithe, shall be no less imputed to you or accepted from
you, than if it were raised out of your own cornfloor or your own
winepress.

XIX. 9. " It shall be kept, &c. for a water of separation."] —
It shall be kept for the cleansing of those that are separated upon
occasion of legal uncleannesses.

XX. 10. "Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out
of this rock?"] — Hear now, ye rebels; is it likely that we shall
fetch water out of this hard rock to satisfy your thirst ? This we
are required to do ; but is this a thing possible to be done ?

J2.' " Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes
of the children of Israel."] — Because ye doubted of the perform
ance of my word ; and, in a weak distrust, struck the rock twice,
as not being confident of the issue, whereas ye were only bidden
to speak unto the rock, to yield forth these waters, &c.

XXI. 5. " Our soul loatheth this light bread."] — We are weary
of this manna; as that which we find a light and unsatisfying
food in comparison of that solid and substantial diet which we
had in Egypt.

6. "Fiery serpents."] — Serpents which wheresoever they stung,
caused a deadly inflammation in the body.

XXII. 22. "And God's anger was kindled because he went."]
— And God, who seeth the heart, and knew the sinister affections
and intentions wherewith Balaam went, was sore displeased at his
so going.

28. "And the LOED opened the mouth of the ass."]— And God
caused the ass miraculously to speak with the voice of a man, to
reprove the foolishness of the prophet.

31. "Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw
the angel."] — The eyes of Balaam, which before were held, that
they could not sec the visible shape which the angel had taken
upon him, were now freed, and enlightened to behold that sight.

34. "I have sinned."] — I have done ill, in smiting my beast
causelessly.

XXIII. 9. "From the tops of the rocks I see him, and from
the hills I behold him : lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall
not be reckoned among the nations."] — I am set upon this high
rock and mountain, on purpose that upon the sight of Israel I
might curse him : I do indeed behold him. but I have no power

NUMBERS XIX. 9.— XXIV. i. 87

to curse him. Lo, tins people shall be an entire nation within
themselves ; and shall be a peculiar people, severed and set apart
to God from all other nations upon earth.

i o. " Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the
fourth part of Israel ?"] — This people shall, through the blessing
of God, so multiply, that a man may as soon count the several
motes of dust on the whole face of the earth as reckon their
number ; yea, one of those four squadrons into which they are
divided, shall, for their multitude, be past the sum of any com
putation.

19. " God is not a man, that he should lie ; neither the son of
man, that he should repent."] — God hath already spoken a word
of blessing, and hath accordingly decreed a large benediction for
Israel ; do not therefore hope vainly that he will upon any en
treaty reverse his word, and do contrary to what he hath deter
mined and reVealed.

21. " He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath seen
pcrverseness in Israel."] — God, in his great mercy and favour to
Israel, will not impute their sins unto them ; he will not take
notice of their offences, to punish them according to desert.

Ibid. " The shout of a king is among them."] — As God is now
their king to govern and protect them, so he hath ordained that
they shall have kings out of their own loins, to rule over them ;
whom they shall receive with great joy and acclamation.

23. "Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, nor any
divination against Israel."] — In vain do ye carry me from place
to place, that I might by my incantations procure some mischief
to Israel ; for certainly this people is so strong and safe in God's
protection, that no enchantment or any other evil art can prevail
against them.

Ibid. " According to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of
Israel, What hath God wrought!"]— Even at this very time I
cannot but with astonishment record what great and wonderful
things the Lord hath wrought for Israel.

XXIV. i. "And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD
to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek enchant
ments."] — Notwithstanding all the fair pretences of Balaam, he
had, together with his former consultations of God, used all kinds
of sorcery to hurt Israel ; but since he saw that none of his wicked
plots would succeed, he surceased to practise his enchantments
upon them any more.

88 PARAPHRASE UPON

2. "And the spirit of God came upon him."] — God, who knows
how to use evil instruments well, and is wont indifferently to be
stow these kinds of gifts, caused the spirit of prophecy to come
upom Balaam.

3. "The man whose eyes are open hath said.'1] — The man
whose eyes, however formerly shut, yet now are, by the spirit of
prophecy, so opened as becomes God's seer.

4. " Falling into a trance, but having his eyes open."] — Falling
into a trance, so as all his outward senses were shut up ; yet the
eyes of his mind were opened, to behold the visions of God.

6. " As the trees of lign aloes which the LORD hath planted, and
as cedar trees beside the waters."] — As the most sweet and flou
rishing trees, which the Lord himself hath planted, in a most
fruitful soil.

7. " He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed
shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag."]
— He shall have a plentiful and rich progeny; his issue shall
spread abroad over fruitful regions ; and the kings, that shall
come of his loins, shall be more mighty than the most flourishing
kings of the Amalekites.

9. " He couched, he lay down as a lion, &e., who shall stir him
up ?"] — He shall rest in fulness of courage, strength, and victory,
so as no enemy shall dare to provoke him.

17. "I shall see him, but not now : I shall behold him, but not
nigh : there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall
rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy
all the children of Sheth."] — I do, by the spirit of prophecy,
descry afar off the state and glory of the people of Israel : there
shall arise out of Jacob a glorious king, bright as the morning
star, which shall not only rule over Israel, but shall powerfully
subdue all the enemies of his church round about.

19. "Him that remaineth in the city."] — That sheltcreth him
self in any of the cities of Edom.

21. "And he looked on the Kenites, &c. Strong is thy dwell
ing place, and thou puttcst thy nest in a rock."] — Ye Kenites, the
posterity of Jethro, may please yourselves in your security, for
that ye are settled in strong and well fortified places ; and, ac
cording as your name signifieth, have built your nest high and
imprcgnably.

22. "Nevertheless the Kenites shall be wasted, until Ashur
shall carry thee away captive."] — But your hopes shall at the

NUMBERS XXIV. 2.— XXVII. 3. 89

last fail you ; for when the Assyrians shall prevail against Israel
then shall they also root you out of your land, and carry you
away captive with your neighbours.

23. "Alas, who shall live when God doeth this!"] — What
grievous and intolerable calamity there shall be when God shall
bring this judgment !

24. "And ships shall come from the coasts of Chittim, and
shall afflict Ashur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall 'perish
for ever."] — And ships shall come from the coasts of Greece and
Italy, and shall afflict both the Assyrians and the Hebrews ; but
when they have done, these rods that scourged others shall them
selves be burnt ; and feel that destruction which they brought
upon others.

25. " And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to his
place."] — And Balaam rose up, and, being frustrated of his
wicked plots in cursing Israel, addressed himself towards his re
turn, but in the way was overtaken with the just revenge of God.

XXV. i. " And the people began to commit whoredom with
the daughters of Moab."] — According to the wicked project of
Balaam, the people of Israel began to commit fornication with the
women of Moab.

3. " And Israel joined himself to Baal-peor."] — And the
Israelites joined themselves, both in spiritual and bodily fornica
tion, with those which worshipped Baal-peor.

4. " The heads of the people."] — The captains and ringleaders
of this wickedness.

6. " Brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman."] —
Brought into the camp of Israel, with an open profession and
purpose of committing fornication with her, a Midianitish woman.

12. "Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace."] — Be
hold, his zeal hath turned away my wrath from Israel, so as now
I will be reconciled with them ; and for this cause I do decree to
make an everlasting covenant with Phinehas, that he and his pos
terity shall serve me in the priesthood.

XXVI. ii. "Notwithstanding the children of Korah died not."]
— Howsoever Korah perished in that insurrection against Moses
and Aaron, yet his sons, as being free from their father's con
spiracy, perished not with him, but were employed in the service
of God with very gracious approbation.

XXVII. 3. "He died in his own sin."]— He was not one of
them which was an author of sin unto others, but, as other un-

90 PARAPHRASE UPON

noted Israelites, he died in the wilderness without any public
offence or censure.

IT. "A statute of judgment."] — A judicial law that shall con
tinue unto Israel for ever ; which, as it is grounded upon just rea
son, so shall stand in due force upon all occasions hereafter.

1 2. " Get thee up into this mount Abarim."] — Get thee up into
this mount Nebo, which is one of the hills called Abarim.

14. " For ye rebelled, &c."] — Vide Numbers xx. 12.

1 8. " A man in whom is the spirit."] — A man whom I have
endued with more than an ordinary* measure of my spirit of wis
dom and courage.

20. " Put some of thine honour upon him."] — Let him have the
same titles and respect from the people that thou hadst.

21. "He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask
counsel for him after the judgment of Urim."] — The high priest
shall, upon all weighty occasions, ask counsel of God for him ;
and he shall receive directions from the breastplate of judgment
in all his doubts.

XXVIII. and XXIX. are the laws of the sacrifices repeated,
after the long intermission of them since their first delivery.

XXX. 5. " The LORD shall forgive her, because her father dis
allowed her."] — It shall not be imputed to her as a sin, that she
performed not that which her father denieth allowance unto, since
she is not in her own power to dispose of.

13. " Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her
husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void."] —
Every vow which the wife maketh, though she bind it with an
oath also, tending to any act of humiliation, by abstinence, or any
other penitential exercise, the husband, who hath power over the
wife, may, according to his own judgment and will, cither esta
blish or frustrate.

XXXI. 23. " Ye shall make it go through the fire.'1] — Ye shall
cleanse by putting it into the fire ; that, as by fire it received that
form, so thereby it may receive a new purity.

Ibid. " Nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of se
paration."] — The water of purification, which is appointed for all
holy vessels, shall be sprinkled upon it, beside and above that
cleansing by fire.

28. " And levy a tribute unto the LORD of the men of war
which went out to battle : one soul of five hundred, both of the
persons, and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep."]—

NUMBERS XXVII. 1 1 .—XXXVI. 6. 91

That ye may acknowledge all your success and victory to come
from the Lord, the soldiers shall present to God the five-hun
dredth part of both the persons and beasts which they have
taken.

XXXII. 20. " If ye will do this thing, if ye will go armed be
fore the LORD to war."] — On this condition, that ye will go armed
in the front of the battle before the people of the Lord, and by
this means testify your courage and forwardness, that all Israel
may know it is not out of any cowardice or fear that you take up
your stations on this side Jordan, but only for the greater conve
nience of the place, I shall yield that your portion shall light
where you have desired.

XXXIII. 55. " Those whom ye shall let to remain of them
shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides."] — Those
whom ye shall suffer to remain amongst you shall be a continual
vexation to you, both in spiritual and bodily respects, procuring
much sorrow and mischief to you.

XXXV. 6. " And to them shall ye add forty and two cities."]
— Besides those six cities of refuge which shall be given to the
Levites for their possession, ye shall also add two and forty cities
more to be the peculiars of the said Levites, so as forty-eight
cities shall be allotted to them for their inheritance.

12. "That the manslayer die not, until he stand before the
congregation in judgment. "]- — That whosoever hath committed
manslaughter may for the time shelter himself there, till he may
have a fair and judicial trial before the elders of that city where
the fact was done, and may not be surprised by the avenger of
blood ere his cause be fully heard.

21. "The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer,
when he meeteth him."] — The revenger of blood, to whom lawful
authority shall commit the execution, shall slay the murderer:
when he is delivered into his hand by a legal judgment, he shall
be his executioner.

XXXVI. 6. " Let them marry to whom they think best; only
to the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry."] -
Let them not be forced to marry where they like not : it shall be
free for them to take their own choice ; but so as that they keep
themselves within the compass of their own tribe : they may not
therefore marry with any man of any other tribe of Israel.

92 PARAPHRASE UPON

DEUTERONOMY.

I. 9. " I am not able to bear you myself alone."] — I am not
able to wield the government of so great and mighty a people
alone.

37. " Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes."] —
The Lord was displeased with me ; for that being moved by
your provocations I offended, both in my unadvised speeches and
distrust.

II. 30. " For the LORD thy God hardened his spirit, and made
his heart obstinate."] — The Lord thy God gave him up to his own
thoughts, and he put on stubborn resolutions against Israel.

III. ii. "After the cubit of a man."] — According to the usual
and received measure of a cubit.

IV. 5. " I have taught you statutes and judgments."] — I have
given you laws both civil and sacred.

32. "Ask now of the days that are past."] — Inquire of those
events and proofs of actions which have been in ancient times.
34. " By temptations."] — By several trials of their obedience.

VI. 16. "Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God," &c.] — Ye
shall not provoke the Lord your God by distrusting, or straining
his power for the satisfying of your own carnal desires.

VII. 15. " The LORD will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt
upon thee."] — The Lord will not plague thee with those conta
gious and deadly diseases which he inflicted upon the Egyptians
when they withstood his will in your departure. Vide Exod.
ix. 14.

20. " The LORD thy God shall send the hornet among them,"
&c.] — The Lord thy God, who is able by smallest means to con
found the mightiest, shall send venomous flies amongst them, which
shall not only gall them, but shall sting them to death.

VIII. 9. " A land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills
thou mayest dig brass."] — A land whose face is not better fur
nished with all kinds of fruits, than her bowels are stored with
rich and useful metals.

IX. 21. "I took your sin, the calf which ye had made."] — I
took that molten calf wherein you had sinned ; idolatrously wor
shipping it instead of the true God.

X. 1 6. " Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your hearts."] —
Cut off therefore all that superfluity of wickedness which is in

DEUTERONOMY I. 9.— XIV. 6. 93

your nature and practice, and be ye spiritually clean and holy
unto God.

XI. u. " But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of

hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven."]

The land of Canaan, which ye are now going to possess, is not
an even and low plain, as Egypt was, from whence ye came, but
full of pleasant and wholesome mountains ; and therefore is not
nor cannot be watered with the overflowings of a river, as Egvpt
was with Nilus, but is moistened with the rain that falls from the
clouds.

14. " I will give you the first and the latter rain."] — I will give
you seasonable rains ; both the first rain after your seed time, to
supple and fruiten the earth ; and the latter rain before your
harvest, to swell up and fill the ears.

18. "For a sign on thine hand and a frontlet between thine
eyes.1'] — Vide Exod. xiii. 9 and 26. Not only shalt thou lay up
my law in thy heart, but thou shalt have certain scrolls tied, both
to thy forehead and to thy hand, for a memorial thereof.

XII. 22. "Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so shalt
thou cat them : the unclean and clean shall eat of them alike."]
So also ver. 15. — Thou mayest freely cat of thy beeves or sheep
or goats, though these kinds of creatures are wont to be of use for
sacrifice unto God ; yet mayest thou with no less allowance eat of
them, than of the roe and hart, which are unfit for sacrifice, and
yet fit for the use of thy table ; neither shall there be any difference
of persons, in respect of legal cleanness or pollution, at these thy
civil meals ; but all shall partake of them alike.

XIII. 6. "Or thy friend, which is as thine own soul."] — Or,
if it be possible that a friend should be dearer to thee than all
these, as being no less one with thy soul than thy wife is with
thy body.

9. " Thou shalt surely kill him : thy hand shall be first upon
him."] — Thou shalt certainly procure his death by thine informa
tion and testimony ; and, as his just accuser, thou shalt throw the
first stone at him.

17. "And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to
thine hand/']— Thou shalt suffer nothing to be reserved of all that
spoil which is devoted to destruction.

XIV. i . "Ye shall not cut yourselves," &c] —See Levit. xix. 28.
and Jerem. xvi. 6.

6. "Every beast that parteth the hoof."]— Sec Levit. xi. 2, 3.

94

XV. 4' " Save when there shall be no poor ; or, that there be
no poor among you."] — Thou shalt thus release, that thou mayest
not by thine exaction impoverish thy brother ; that so there may

be no needy person among you. Compare this verse with

the eleventh.

XVI. 7. "And thou shalt turn in the morning, and go to thy
tents."] — After thou hast thus eaten the passover on the evening,
thou shalt in the morning return to the place of thine abode.

19. "Thou shalt' not take a gift."] — Thou shalt not receive a
bribe to pervert justice.

21. "Thou shalt not plant thee any grove of trees near to the
altar of the LORD/']-— Thou shalt not so far conform thyself to
heathen idolaters, as to plant any grove of trees near to the altar
of the Lord.

XVII. 8. " If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judg
ment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and be
tween stroke and stroke," &c] — If there arise a matter for thee
too hard to decide, in cases of murder and manslaughter, in
questions of difference betwixt parties, whether in civil affairs or
business of violence offered.

1 6. "Nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that
he should multiply horses."] — Nor send his people down into Egypt,
to fetch thence such multitude of horses, as whereon he may trust
for success of victory.

XX. 5. " What man hath built a new house, and hath not
dedicated it ? let him return," &c.J — If any man have a mind to
make excuses of occasions whereby his heart may be drawn home
ward, so as he cannot heartily intend the service of the war,
whether it be in matter of purchase or marriage or plantation,
let him have free liberty to return ; for God requires a free and
cheerful resolution in those which go forth to fight his battles.

1 6. "Thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth."] — Except
they accept the conditions of peace when they are tendered unto
them, thou shalt leave none of the persons or beasts alive.

19. "Thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof.''] — Thou shalt
not destroy any of the trees that bear fruit for the sustenance
of man.

XXI. 4. " Unto a rough valley."] —Unto some obscure valley,
that lies neglected, and utterly uncultured.

12. " She shall shave her head, and suffer her nails to grow.-"]
— Thou shalt take those courses with her that may most set off

DEUTERONOMY XV.4.— XXLII. 18. 95

thy affections from her ; both by the shaving her head close, and
by the deformed growth of her nails.

14. " If thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her
go."] — But if, by these means of deformation, thy heart shall be
set off from her, before thy marriage to her, then thou shalt dis
miss her, &c.

17. " The beginning of his strength.""] — He is the first of that
issue which is a strengthening and defence unto him.

23. " For he that is hanged is accursed of God.""] — As all that
are put to death as malefactors are, in regard of the cause of
their death,, accursed of God, so, in an especial manner, those
that are put to this painful and shameful death of hanging upon
the tree, as their offence is more heinous and detestable.

XXII. i. " Thou shalt not hide thyself from them."]— Thou shalt
not forbear to give help to the ox or sheep of thy brother, in
bringing it home from straying.

7. "But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go,'1 &c.] — Thou
shalt avoid all cruelty towards those creatures which God hath
given to thy use : thou shalt not therefore at once kill the
dam, sitting on her nest; since the lives of the young depend
on hers.

27. "And the betrothed damsel cried."]— It is to be supposed
that the betrothed damsel cried.

30. "Not discover his father's skirt."] — See Levit. xviii. 8.

XXIII. i. " Shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD."]
— Shall not be admitted to bear office in the state of Israel.

8. The children that are begotten of them shall enter into the
congregation of the LORD in the third generation."] — After
they have been in three successions incorporated into Israel, they
may have the privilege of being admitted to the administration of
the commonwealth.

12. "Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither
thou shalt go forth abroad."] — Thou shalt have a place set apart
for thee without the camp, whither thou shalt go for the dis
charging of the necessities of nature.

15. " Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which
is escaped from his master to thee."] — If a heathenish servant
shall be a convert to thy true religion ; and shall, in this regard,
for the liberty of his conscience, flee unto thee ; thou shalt not
deliver him back to his master.

1 8. "Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore."]— An harlot

96 PARAPHRASE

shall not offer to God that money which was given her for the
hire of her whoredom.

20. " Uhto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury.1"] — To
him that is a stranger from the blood and religion of Israel thou
mayest carry thyself strangely ; and therefore thou art not bound
to lend unto such a one freely.

25. "Then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand."] —
Thou mayest, for the satisfying of thy present hunger, pluck the
ears of corn with thy hand.

XXIV. " Because he hath found some uncleanness in her :
then let him write her a bill of divorce."] — If a man shall find
any foul or shameful matter in the behaviour of his wife, or any
intolerable imperfection in her body, a divorce in such case is,
for the hardness of your hearts, tolerated ; which divorce is to be
signified by a formal writing to that purpose.

6. "For he taketh a man's life to pledge."] — For that which
he taketh to pledge is a necessary instrument of preparing that
bread whereby man's life is sustained.

15. "He setteth his heart upon it."] — He maketh account of it
as a means of his livelihood.

1 6. " The father shall not be put to death for the children," &c.]
— However the magistrate may deal in case of mulcts and for
feitures, yet he may not inflict death upon the child for the father's
offence, nor on the father for the crime of the child.

XXV. i. " They shall justify the righteous."]— They shall ab
solve and acquit the innocent.

5. " Her husband's brother shall go in unto her."] — He that is
next in blood to her husband shall retire himself to a conjugal
familiarity with her.

6. " Shall succeed in the name of his brother."] — Shall be re
puted as the son of that brother which is dead.

9. " And shall spit in his face (or, presence), and shall answer
and say, So shall it be done to the man that will not build up his
brother's house."] — And shall spit upon the ground before him ;
and shall say, So shall the man be defied, or spat out of the con
gregation, as justly worthy of contempt, who refuseth to raise up
seed to his dead brother.

XXVI. 5. " A Syrian ready to perish was my father."] — A dis
tressed sojourner in Syria, that fled from a cruel brother to the
service of a cruel uncle, was that ancestor from whom we are
derived.

DEUTERONOMY XXIII. 20.— XXVIII. 27. 97

14. "I have not eaten thereof in ray mourning."] — I have not
eaten thereof uncomfortably and dejectedly, but with that cheer
fulness of heart which thou requirest.

Ibid. "Nor given aught thereof to the dead."] — I have not
superstitiously bestowed any part thereof in furnishing the exe
quies of the dead.

XXVII. .5. " Thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them."]
— No iron tool shall be used in hewing and squaring of the stones
for God's altar.

9. " This day thou art become the people of the LORD thy
God."] — This day, by renewing thy covenant with God, thou art
anew interested in him, and acknowledged for his peculiar people.

12. " These shall stand upon Mount Gerizim and bless the peo
ple."] — Six of the tribes, which are more noble, by the mother's
side, than the rest, shall, upon Mount Gerizim, pronounce the
blessing on the people.

24. " Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly."] —
Cursed be he that, by secret practices, procureth the blood of his
neighbour to be shed.

26. " Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this
law to do them."] — Cursed be he, that doth not in his practice
conform and frame himself to the whole law of God, and continue
in the careful observation thereof all his days.

XXVIII. 5. " Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store."] —
Blessed shalt thou be in the fruits which thou gatherest and layest
up ; and in those victuals which thou preparest or reservest.

12. "The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the
heaven to give the rain to thy land," &c.] — The Lord, that hath
treasured up his rich and fruitful showers in the clouds, shall open
them seasonably unto thee; causing the rain to fall from heaven
upon thy land, &c.

13. " The LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail."]
— The Lord shall give thee a superiority above other nations, and
not put thee beneath them in honour and reputation.

23. " The heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the
earth that is under thee shall be iron."] — The moisture of the
clouds shall be utterly restrained from thee; and the earth shall,
with the drought thereof, be barren and fruitless.

O '

24. " The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and
dust."]— The air shall be filled with a dry dust, instead of the
drops of a comfortable and refreshing rain.

BP. HALL, VOL. III. H

98 PARAPHRASE UPON

27. "The LORD shall smite thee with the botch of Egypt."] —
The Lord shall smite thee with those grievous boils and blains
wherewith he plagued the Egyptians when they refused to let you
go out of their land. Exod. ix.

34. " Thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes.""] — The
view and sense of those judgments which shall be inflicted upon
thee shall utterly distract thee of thy wits.

48. " He shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck."] — He shall
put thee under an hard and intolerable bondage.

54. " His eye shall be evil toward his brother," &c.] — He shall
grudge to his brother, or to his wife, any part of the flesh of his
own children, &c.

65. " A trembling heart, and failing of eyes."] — An heart full
of dejectedness and dismay, and an utter disappointment of all
hopes of delivery.

68. " The LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships."]
— The Lord shall cause thee to be carried captive in ships, through
the Mediterranean sea, into that land of Egypt where thou wert
once in bondage.

XXIX. 15. " But with him that standeth here with us this day
before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with
us this day."] — I make this covenant, as with those that are now
alive, and here present this day, so with those of your posterity,
which as yet have no being.

1 8. "Lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall
and wormwood."] — Lest there be amongst you any wicked person,
who by his idolatry may poison God's people, and bring many
bitter and grievous judgments upon you.

19. "To add drunkenness to thirst."] — To draw on one sin
upon another ; making one sin but a beginning and provocation
of the next.

23. "And that the whole land thereof is brimstone and salt,
and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth."] — And that the
whole land thereof shall be, Sodom-like, covered over with brim
stone and salt ; which shall scorch and dry up the earth, that it
shall not be capable of seed or fruit.

XXX. 6. " The LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart."]
— The Lord thy God will, by his Spirit, reform and renew thy
heart.

XXXII. 2. " My doctrine shall drop as the rain," &c.] — I wish
that my doctrine may so fall upon your hearts as the sweet and

DEUTERONOMY XXVIII. 27.— XXXII. 31. 99

gentle showers fall upon the herbs and flowers of the earth, which
cause them to spring forth and flourish.

4. " He is the Rock."] — He is a strong and sure refuge to his
Church.

5. " They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot
of his children : they are a perverse and crooked generation."]
— This people of Israel hath corrupted themselves with their
idolatry : the blemishes of their actions are not such as may stand
with the profession which they make of God's children, errors of
infirmity; but such as justly argue them to be a rebellious and
wicked generation.

9. " For the LORD'S portion is his people."] — The Lord hath
chosen out Israel to be his share and peculiar possession, among
all the nations of the world.

13. "He made him ride on the high places of the earth.1''] — He
made him to subdue and triumph over the most defenced cities,
and most impregnable places of the earth.

Ibid. " He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and
oil out of the flinty rock."] — He caused the most craggy and
barren parts to yield unto Israel much pleasure and store of
delicacies.

15. " But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked;" &c.] — But my
people, whom I styled righteous, have abused my bounty, and
turned my grace into wantonness ; for being pampered by my
merciful provisions, they have carried themselves rebelliously to
wards me.

21. "I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a
people."] — This people of Israel shall be moved to anger and
envy, by the sight of those mercies which, diverting from them,
I shall bestow upon the Gentiles, whom now they scorn as no
people of God.

22. " For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto
the lowest hell."] — Those judgments which I will inflict in my
wrathful displeasure shall be most vehement and unconceivably
fearful.

24. " They shall be burnt with hunger."] — Their skins shall
turn black with famine.

30. " Except their Rock had sold them."] — If God, who was
wont to be their refuge, had not given them up into the hands of
their enemies, to be bought and sold as slaves.

31. "For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies

H 2

TOO PARAPHRASE UPON

themselves being judges."] — For the gods in whom the heathen
trust are not like unto our God, even in the judgment of our
enemies themselves, who have had experience of the wonderful
power of God, both in his judgments and our deliverances.

32. " Their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of
Gomorrah ; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are
bitter."] —The fruits that they yield are unsavoury and unwhole
some ; such as were yielded by those wicked cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah : so abominably evil are their lives, as were those of the
cities accursed and consumed from heaven ; their works are most
distasteful and odious in the judgment of the Almighty.

33. " Their wine is the poison of dragons."] — Their best actions
are to God as the deadliest poison is to the taste of men.

34. " Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among
my treasures."] — Are not these Avickednesses taken notice of, and
kept in perpetual remembrance by me, and in my eternal decree
reserved to a most certain judgment?

40. " I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever."] —
I swear by myself, and say, As I live for ever, I will be avenged
on mine enemies.

42. " I will make mine arrows drunk with blood.'"] — I will, by
my revenging hand, work an exceeding great slaughter amongst
mine enemies.

47. " It is your life."] — It is that which if ye do ye shall live
in performing it.

XXXIII. 2. " The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from
Seir unto them ; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came
with ten thousands of his saints : from his right hand went a fiery
law for them."] — God, like a glorious sun, imparted his beams
unto Israel ; beginning his course at their first entering into the
wilderness, and rising still up to them by the proof of his good
ness, in their passage through the land of Edom : he shined forth
brightly, as at noon-day, to them, when he blessed the elders of
Israel with a large measure of his Spirit; and he guarded his
people with ten thousands of his powerful angels ; in whose at
tendance he did, in fire, deliver his law majestically and terribly
to Israel.

3. " All his saints are in thy hand : and they sate down at thy
feet; every one shall receive of thy words."] — 0 God, all thine
holy and chosen people are in thy safe and blessed protection :
they attended upon thee, at the foot of the mount Sinai ; and,

DEUTERONOMY XXXII. 32.— XXXIII. 17. 101

with awe and reverence, received the words of thy law, which
thou spakest unto them.

5. "He was king in Jeshurun.'1'1] — Moses was the prince and
governor of Israel.

7. " And bring him unto his people : let his hands be sufficient
for him."] — Bring him home from his wars with victory and peace :
let his hand be so strengthened by thee, that it may be able to
subdue all his enemies.

8. "Let thy Urim and thy Thummim be with thy holy one,
whom thou didst prove in Massah."] — Be gracious to the tribe of
Levi ; and furnish thou thine high priest, whom thou hast chosen
out of it, with those excellent graces which thou hast figured in
his breastplate, with perfection of knowledge and sanctity. Thus
do thou bless the son of that thy servant Aaron, whom thou
provedst at Massah, &c.

\1. "He shall dwell between his shoulders."] — God shall take
up his dwelling in that chief city, which in part pertaineth to the
tribe of Benjamin, even the holy city Jerusalem.

13. " For the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath."]
— For the dew that falleth from above ; and for the watersprings
that fruiten his plants from below.

14. "And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun,
and for the precious fruits put forth by the moon."] — And for
those precious fruits which are brought forth by the warmth of
the sunbeams, and by the kindly moisture of the night, and by the
influence of the moon.

15. "And for the chief things of the ancient mountains," &c.]
— And for those choice fruits which ripen best upon the moun
tains ; those eminent mountains which have so continued ever
since their first creation, and are now famous in the inheritance
of Joseph.

1 6. "For the good-will of him that dwelt in the bush."] — For
the gracious favour and benediction of that God who appeared to
me in that bush which consumed not.

17. " His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns
are like the horns of unicorns ; with them he shall push the people
together to the ends of the earth ; and they are the ten thousands
of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manassch."] — The
tribe of Ephraim shall be glorious and lusty, full of beauty and
courage, like to a fair young bullock in his best strength ; and
his power shall be great and unresistible, wherewith he shall con-

102 PARAPHRASE UPON

quer far remote nations. Lo, thus successful and victorious shall
be both the sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, but especially
Ephraim, who shall exceed his brother no less than ten degrees.

18. "Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out; and Issachar in thy
tents."] — Much cause of joy mayst thou have, 0 Zebulun, in all
thy goings out, whether for traffick or for war ; and thou, Issachar,
his elder brother, in thy quiet habitations at home.

20. " He dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the arm with the crown
of the head."] — Gad shall dwell commodiously for spoiling his
enemies ; of whom he shall make his prey, like to a strong fierce
lion, which teareth the head from the shoulders of that beast
which he seizeth upon.

21. " And he provided the first part for himself, because there,
in a portion of the lawgiver, he was seated."] — He made a wise
and early provision for himself, in planting himself on this side
Jordan, in that portion which, upon his suit, was allotted him by
the ruler and lawgiver of Israel.

22. "Dan is a lion's whelp: he shall leap from Bashan."] —
Dan shall fly upon his enemies, like some fell and fierce young
lion, that is bred in the mountain of Bashan.

24. " Let him dip his foot in oil."] —He shall dwell in a rich
soil, and shall abound with the plenty of all earthly blessings.

25. " Thy shoes shall be iron and brass."] — The earth, whereon
thou shalt tread, shall be stored with all useful metals, as iron and
brass, and the like of those kinds.

XXXIV. 6. " And he buried him in a valley in the land of
Moab."] — God did this honour to his servant Moses, that he did
without the aid of any mortal hand provide a grave for him, and
there interred him accordingly.

10. " Face to face.-"] See Numb. xii. 8.

JOSHUA.

Ver. 9. " I have this day rolled away the reproach of Egypt off
you."] — I have taken away from you that your uncircumcision,
which you have kept all this while, out of that irreligious care
lessness which your fathers brought with them out of Egypt.

14. "Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now
come."] — It is far from me to be for thine adversaries ; no, I am
that angel of the covenant who am come to lead and protect the
troops of Israel.

15. "Loose thy shoe," &c."] See Exod. iii. 5.

DEUTERONOMY XXXIII. 18.— JOSHUA XI. 13. 103

VI. 17. "The city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are
therein, to the LORD."] — The city shall be devoted to an absolute
destruction, and all the living creatures that are in it; and se
questered to a revenge and extirpation from the Lord.

26. "He shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and
in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.11] — When he
lays the first stone in the foundation, let his eldest son die ; and
when he hath finished it, and set up the gates, let his youngest son
die : so let him be left utterly childless, that will go about to reedify
that city, which God would have lie waste. See i Kings xvi. 34.

VII. 5. " The hearts of the people melted, and became as
water."] — They began to be disheartened, and their courage and
spirit began to fail them.

19. "My son, I pray thee give glory to the LORD," &c.] — As
thou hast offended and dishonoured God by thy sin, so now give
honour to his omniscience and justice, who hath found thee out in
thy sin. by acknowledging this heinous offence, whereby thou hast
provoked God's anger against his people.

IX. 14. " And the men took of their victuals, and asked not
counsel at the mouth of the LORD."] — And the men took their
relation upon trust, at the sight of their mouldy victuals ; and did
not consult with the high priest, who, in all doubtful cases, was to
return them the answers of the Lord.

23. "Now therefore ye are cursed."] — Ye are of that nation
whom God, amongst the rest, hath cursed and appointed to be
rooted out ; and, besides, you have deserved a just punishment of
this your guile.

X. 12. '; Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon ; and thou, moon, in
the valley of Ajalon."] — O God, let it please thee to command the
sun to stand still, while we are fighting in and for Gibeon ; that
we may have light to do full execution upon thine enemies : and
let the moon forbear to bring on the night upon us.

40. " So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the
south, and of the vale, and of the springs."] — So Joshua smote all
that part of the country which lay to the south ; both those cities
which were built on the hills, and those which were seated in the
plains.

XI. 13. " But as for the cities that stood still in their strength,
Israel burnt none of them."] — As for those cities which yielded
themselves up to Joshua, ere they were defaced by the violence of
a siege, Israel burnt none of them.

104 PARAPHRASE UPON

30. " For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they
should conie against Israel in battle."] — It was the wise counsel
and just decree of the Almighty, that the inhabitants, being left
to their own thoughts, should take up stubborn resolutions to
stand out in battle against Israel.

XV. 19. " Give me a blessing ; for thou hast given me a south
land ; give me also springs of water."] — Out of the bounty of a
parent, give me this addition to my child's part : thou hast already
bestowed upon me a parcel of mountainous and dry land, give me
also some other ground that lies low and well watered.

XVII. 18. "And the outgoings of it shall be thine."]— Thou
shalt take all the passages to, and from, and about it ; and the
bordering places adjoining to it.

XXII. 17, 1 8. "Is the iniquity of Poor too little for us, from
which we are not cleansed until this day, although there was a
plague in the congregation of the LORD, but that ye must turn
away this day from following the LORD ?" &c.] — Was it not
enough wickedness in us, that heretofore, through the entice
ments of the Moabitish women, we were joined to Baal-Peor, and
were drawn into horrible idolatry, (the remainders of which sin
and judgment do still stick by us. although God sent a grievous
plague amongst us, in regard thereof,) but that ye must now
again this day sin against God in a new point of will-worship and
idolatry ?

19. " If the land of your possession be unclean, then pass ye
over unto the land of the possession of the LORD," &c.] — If there
be any taint of idolatry in the very place whereby it is made
unholy and infectious, then leave that your possession beyond
Jordan, which is separated from the rest of the inheritance of
God's people, and pass over hither to us.

XXIV. 12. " And I sent the hornet before you."] See Deut.
vii. 20.

19. "He will not forgive your transgressions, nor your sins."]
—He will not suffer your willing and presumptuous sins to go un
punished.

27. "Behold this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath
heard all the words of the LORD," &c.] — This stone shall be a
monument of this day's covenant which you have renewed with
the Lord ; forasmuch as in the view and presence thereof ye
have spoken the words of this covenant, mutually agreed upon
betwixt God and us.

JOSHUA XI. 20.— JUDGES V. 10. 105

JUDGES.

III. 8. "He sold them into the hand of Chushan-Rishathaim, kino-
of Mesopotamia."] — God gave them into the hands of the kino- Of
Mesopotamia, that they might be his tributaries and slaves.

10. " And the spirit of the LORD came upon him."] — And God
enabled him with the gifts of wisdom and power to rescue and
govern his people.

IV. 4. "Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged
Israel at that time."] — And Deborah was moved with the spirit
of prophecy, and was extraordinarily raised up by God, to give
answers from God to Israel, and to give counsels and directions to
his people.

V. 4. " LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou march-
edst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens
dropped," &c.]— 0 Lord, thou showedst thyself marvellous in all
the passages of Israel out of Egypt ; when thou wentest up before
them from the land of the Edomites, both the heavens and the
earth did both feel and declare thy power : in all these were seen
the wonderful signs of thine almighty protection of thy people.

5. "The mountains melted from before the LORD, even that
Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel."] — The very founda
tions of the mountains were moved at thy presence ; insomuch as
mount Sinai itself, which had formerly shaken at the delivery of
thy Law given upon it, did now again, though far distant, quake
at the awful manifestation of thy power.

6. " In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of
Jael, the highways were unoccupied," &c.] — In the days of the
late tyrants that enthralled and oppressed Israel, even from the
time of Shamgar's deliverance till this of Jael, the ways were un
frequented : no man durst stir out, for fear of their cruelty.

8. "They chose new gods; then was war in the gates."] — It
was for their idolatry that God stirred up enemies against them,
and brought this desolation to their cities.

y. " My heart is toward the governors of Israel, that offered
themselves willingly among the people.''] — I cannot but applaud
and bless God for the forwardness and cheerful courage of the
chief rulers of Israel, in undertaking this war.

10. "Speak: ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in judg
ment, and walk by the way."] — 0 ye, that are the chief leaders
and governors of the people, do ye help me to praise our God,

106 PARAPHRASE UPON

for our deliverance ; and ye, that are travellers and traders abroad,
join with me in this thanksgiving.

ii." They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the
places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous
acts of the LORD, &c. towards the villages of Israel; then shall
the people of the LORD go down to the gates."] — And ye, the
meanest of the people, even the drawers of water, in Israel, who,
for the danger of the enemy, durst not stir forth of your doors,
do you, being delivered from this fear, magnify the great works
of God, who hath so freed all the villages of Israel, that now they
may safely resort to their cities, whether for justice or traffick.

12. "Lead thy captivity captive."] — Bring forth thy captives
in a triumphant manner.

14. " Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek;
after thee, Benjamin, among thy people ; out of Machir came
down governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of
the writer."] — Most of the several tribes did their parts in this
conflict : some came from Ephraim ; others, from the borders of
the Amalekites ; and thou, Benjamin, who art but a small tribe,
wert not behind the rest of Israel ; some from Manasseh (of whom
Machir descended) who were chief rulers among the people, came
forth ; and the scribes of the tribe of Zebulun were not wanting
to this valiant service.

15. "And also Barak; he was sent on foot into the valley.
For the divisions of Reuben there ivere great thoughts of heart."]
— Also Barak, with his tribe of Naphtali, came readily, and with
all the speed that his feet could make, into the field. As for
those tribes of Reuben and Gad, who were by the lot of their in
heritance divided from the rest, there were great exceptions taken
at their absence.

1 6. "Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the
bleatings of the flocks ? For the divisions of Reuben there were
great searchings of heart."] — 0 ye of the tribes beyond Jordan,
how could any of you sit still quiet among your flocks and
herds, when these great businesses were in hand? For the
absence of Reuben, great exceptions were taken, and diverse cen
sures passed.

17. " Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain
in ships,"1" &c.] — Gilead came not forth, but abode still at home
beyond Jordan ; and those of Dan were attending their mer
chandise. &c.

JUDGES V. 1 1 .— VIII. 6. 107

19. "The kings came and fought."]— The neighbour kings
came forth to aid Jabin.

Ibid. "They took no gain of money."]— They gained nothing
by the war.

20. " They fought from heaven ; the stars in their courses
fought against Sisera."] — The very clouds and winds fought for
us against our enemies ; and the stars of heaven, whose influence
works upon these creatures, took part with us against Sisera.

21. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength."] — 0 my
soul, thou hast triumphed over all the strength of thine enemies.

23. " Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD, curse ye
utterly the inhabitants of Meroz ; because they came not to the
help of the LORD," &c.] — The angel of God, whose prophetess I
am, hath bidden me to call for your curses against Meroz, and
the inhabitants thereof; who, dwelling near to the place where
this battle was fought, and as it were within the noise of our
trumpets, yet came not forth to our aid.

VI. 10. " Fear not the gods of the Amorites."] — Do not wor
ship or serve the gods of the Amorites.

22. "For because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to
face."] — For because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to
face, in that visible form which he assumed, I shall surely die.

26. " Upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place."] — In
the top of this rock, whereon I gave order unto thee before to
offer that thy sacrifice (which my fire consumed) in that place,
which is already predisposed for this work, offer thy burnt sacri
fice, &c.

34. " But the spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon."] — God
raised up the heart of Gideon with courage to undertake this
war, and with prudence to manage it.

VIII. 2. "What have I now done in comparison of you? Is
not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage
of Abiezer ?"] —What need ye contend for this ? That latter fact,
that ye Ephraimites have done, in chasing and executing the Mi-
dianites, is much more than all that which we followers of Abiezer
have done, in joining the battle and routing these enemies.

6. "Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine
hand, that we should give bread unto thine army ?"]— Canst
thou be so foolish as to hope to subdue Zeba and Zalmunna, that
we should cast away our victuals on thine army upon this vain
pretence ?

108 PARAPHRASE UPON

7. "I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness."]
— I will beat your bodies with whips of thorns and briers unto
death.

1 6. "And with them he taught the men of Succoth."] — With
them he did, according as he had threatened, beat the elders of
that city, for a warning unto the men of Succoth ; who, by their
example, were taught how dangerous it is to slight God's agents.

26. "A thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold."] — A
thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold, whereof every one
weighed a hundred and sixty grains, which is two drams and
sixteen grains.

27. "And put it in his city, even in Ophrah : and all Israel
went thither a whoring after it."] — He put it, as a monument of
that great victory and deliverance in his city Ophrah : but the
people afterwards made an ill use of it, turning it to the service
of their idols, wherewith they were shamefully denied.

IX. 13. "Which cheereth God and man."] Which is pleasing to
God in the use of his sacrifices, and to men in their feasts.

20. " Let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men
of Shechem." &c.] Let there be deadly dissension between Abi
melech and the men of Shechem ; and let the one of them be
used as a means to plague and destroy the other : let Abimelech
burn the Shechemites, and let them kill him.

23. " Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the
men of Shechem."] — Then God, according to the imprecation of
Jotham, did, in his just judgment, give way and power to Satan,
to set discord between Abimelech and the men of Shechem.

28. "Is not he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer?
serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem : for why should
we serve him?"] — Is not he the base son of Jerubbaal? and is
not this unworthy Zebul his officer? if ye must serve, rather
submit yourselves to those that are the issue of the ancient lords
of this city than to this upstart generation.

45. "And sowed it with salt."] — In sign of an utter solitude
and vastation he sowed salt in the soil of the streets there ; as
those which he would have continue desert and forlorn.

X. 16. "And his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel."] —
And God had compassion on the miseries that Israel had brought
upon themselves by their idolatry.

XI. i i. " And Jephthah uttered all his words before the LORD
in Mi/peh."] — And Jephthah, calling all the congregation toge-

JUDGES vin. 7.— xn. 4. 109

ther to Mizpeh, did before them repeat the covenant that was
between him and Israel, and called the Lord to witness of this
their mutual agreement.

24. " Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth
thee to possess ? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive
out from before us, them will we possess."] — Ye do vainly worship
Chemosh your false god ; and when you have obtained a victory
or possession, ascribe it falsely to that your idol, and think that
you both do and ought to hold it of him ; and is it not reason
then that when the only and true God, whom we serve, gives us
possession of the land of our enemies, we should enjoy it ?

29. " The Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah."] — God
stirred up the courage of Jephthah, and put into him the spirit
of fortitude, &c.

31. " Whatsoever cometh forth of the doors, &c. shall surely
be the LORD'S, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering."] —
Whatsoever cometh first out of my doors to meet me, &c. shall
surely be consecrated to the Lord ; and if it be aught that may
be capable of being sacrificed, I will offer it up for a burnt sacri
fice to God.

35. " Thou hast brought me very low, &c. : for I have opened
my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back."] — Thou art
now unwittingly a cause of much sorrow and affliction to me ; for
I have made a vow to God concerning whatsoever should first
corne forth to meet me, and I cannot reverse it.

37. " Let this thing be done for me ; let me alone two months,
that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my
virginity, I and my fellows."] — Since thou hast vowed to conse
crate me to God, I do also willingly yield to make good thy vow;
only let me have two months' respite to bewail that virginity of
mine, which will follow upon this vow of thine, and shall occasion
.this discomfort unto thee.

40. " To lament (or speak with) the daughter of Jephthah."] —
And the daughters of Israel went yearly to condole with the
daughter of Jephthah four days in a year.

XII. 4. " Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the
Ephraimites, and among the Manassitcs."] — Ye Gileadites are no
better than base fugitives, the scum of two tribes of Ephraim and
Manasseh, a mongrel generation ; compounded of both, and living
upon both ; so as ye have no reason to stand out in a contestation
with the noble tribe of Ephraim.

110 PARAPHRASE UPON

6. " Say now Shibboleth."] — Give proof of thy tribe by thy
speech. Thou wouldst pass over the ford of Jordan ; pronounce
that word which signifieth a ford ; say, Shibboleth, &c.

XIII. 4. " Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not
wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing."} — The
'Nazariteship of thy son shall begin very early, even in the womb
of thee his mother ; thou shalt therefore neither eat nor drink
that which is in the law forbidden to these votaries, lest the child
should within thy womb be nourished with unlawful sustenance.

25. " And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times
in the camp of Dan."] — And he began to have many instincts and
strong motions from God at several times, whereby he found him
self set apart and prepared for the great work of delivering his
people.

XIV. 4. " But his father and his mother knew not that it was
of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines."]

— His father and his mother knew not the Lord had purposely
contrived it thus, that hereupon Samson might take an occasion
to fall foul upon the Philistines, and might have the advantage of
the quarrel.

6. " And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and
he rent him as he would have rent a kid."] — And the Lord en
dued him suddenly with an extraordinary measure of strength,
and he pulled the lion in pieces with as much ease as if it had
been a young and tender kid.

1 8. " If ye had not plowed with my heifer."] — If ye had not
used the means of my wife for the knowledge of this secret.

XV. 8. " And he smote them hip and thigh."] — And he smote
them both horse and foot ; both those that used the thigh for seat,
and those that used the hip for motion, &c.

14. "And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him."] —
And God put a miraculous measure of strength into him.

19. " But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, (or
Lehi,) and there came out water."] — And God opened an hollow-
ness that was in that place, which was called Lehi, or jaw-bone,
and there came out water.

XVI. 1 6. "So that his soul was vexed unto death."] — So as
her importunity was an extreme and intolerable vexation to him.

XVII. 5. " And the man Micah had a house of gods, and made
an ephod, and teraphim, &c. and consecrated one of his sons, who
became his priest."] — And Micah had a chapel in his house, which

JUDGES XII. 6.— RUTH I. n.

he consecrated to his gods ; and made statues or idols, which he
placed therein; and, in imitation of God's own command to his
priests, made an ephod for the priest to wear in his devotions ;
and consecrated one of his sons, though of the tribe of Ephraim,
to be his priest.

13. "Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I
have a Levite to my priest."] — I know I did amiss in consecrating
one to be my priest who is not of the tribe of Levi, but now I
have made amends for that error; and now I hope God will bo
favourable to me, seeing I have chosen a priest out of the due
tribe.

XVIII. 6. " Before the LORD is your way wherein you go."] —
God hath taken special notice of your journey, to prosper it.

30. " Until the day of the captivity of the land."] — Until the
time that the Philistines prevailed against the land.

XIX. 18. " But I am noiu going to the house of the LORD."] —
I am travelling to Shiloh, where the tabernacle of the Lord and
my employment is.

22. " Sons of Belial."] — Lewd and debauched men.

Ibid. " That we may know him."] — That we may abuse him
to our lust.

24. " Humble ye them."] — If ye will needs be so outrageous,
take your pleasure on them rather ; and bring this shame upon
them.

XX. 1 6. " Seven hundred chosen men, left-handed; every one
could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss."] — Seven
hundred men, so skilful, that they could even with their left hand
also wield their weapons ; and so expert in the art of slinging,
that they would not miss of the smallest mark.

23. " And the LORD said, Go up against him."] — Ye are over
confident, as of your cause, so of your strength ; and therefore,
for your further humiliation, I give way unto you to go up against
Benjamin ; but I do not encourage you with promise of success.

XXI. 22. " For ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye
should be guilty."] — Ye have sufficiently kept your oath, in that
ye did not voluntarily give your daughters to them, so as now if
you shall connive at this violence, they are furnished with wives,
and ye are guiltless.

RUTH.

I. i i. "Are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they
may be your husbands?"] — You know I am past the possibility

112 PARAPHRASE UPON

of having any other sons, that might raise a seed to their dead
brethren.

20. " Call me not Naomi, call me Mara," &c.] — My case is now
altered, and so let my name be. I had a name when I was before
with you that sounded of pleasure, but now my present condition
calls for a name of bitterness.

II. 3. " And her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging
unto Boaz."] — God so disposed of her choice, that she lighted
upon a part of the field belonging to Boaz.

20. " Who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to
the dead."] — Who so lovingly continueth a kind remembrance of
his dead kinsman, my late husband Elimelech, and, for his sake,
of me.

III. 9. " Spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid ; for
thou art a near kinsman."] — Take thou me into thy protection,
as my husband ; for thou art the man who, by the law of God,
as being one of the nearest kinsmen to my husband, hast right,
both to redeem his inheritance and to marry me his widow.

IV. 6. " I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar my own in
heritance."] — I cannot redeem it for myself, lest, if I should have
one only son by Ruth, my inheritance should be utterly extin
guished ; since that son must be accounted as my deceased kins
man's, and not mine.

I. SAMUEL.

I. 5. " The LORD had shut up her womb."] — But the Lord
afflicted her with barrenness.

20. " When the time was come about."] — When the full num
ber of months were come about after her conception.

28. " I have also lent him to the LORD."] — I have, upon my
vow, returned him to the Lord, as consecrated unto him by me
formerly.

II. 3. " Talk no more so exceeding proudly," &c.] — Now let
not Peniunah, or any other adversaries, that were wont to insult
over me, open their mouths against me.

5. " They that were full have hired out themselves for bread;
and they that ivere hungry ceased ; so that the barren hath borne
seven."] — Those that were wealthy are now so brought down that
they are fain to hire out themselves to get bread for their mouths ;
and those that were poor and hungry are so filled that they take
their ease ; the barren is now the mother of many children, &c.

RUTH I. 20.— I. SAMUEL 1IL 7. 113

8. " For the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, and he hath
set the world upon them."] — The Lord hath founded the earth
strongly, and immovably ; and hath made it the centre, or found
ation, whereon he hath framed and stablished the world.

12. " Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial ; they knew not
the LORD."] — The sons of Eli were lewd and wicked men, and
did not acknowledge and regard the Lord ; but in their works
denied him.

14. "All that the fleshhook brought up, the priest took for
himself."] — The priests were not content with those parts of the
sacrifice which God had allotted unto them, but took whatsoever
the fleshhook first brought up.

15. "Also before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came,"
&c.] — Whereas, by the ordinance of God, the fat was first to be
offered and burnt to the Lord, they would not stay the leisure of
this due ceremony, but snatched away the flesh before the time.

20. "For the loan which/' &c.] See chap. i. 28.

39. " Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice?"] — Why do ye con
temn my sacrifices, and make a scorn of them before the people?

Ibid. " And honourest thy sons above me."] — Wherefore hast
thou given more respect to thy sons than unto me ; in that thou
hast suffered them to carve for themselves of my sacrifices, and to
eat thereof before I am served ?

30. " I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father,
should walk before me for ever : but now the LORD saith, Be it
far from me."] — I had indeed, at the first institution of the priest
hood, truly, though conditionally, decreed, that thy house and the
house of thy fathers should ever continue this sacred office before
me ; but now, since ye have violated that part of the condition
which concerned yourselves, far be it from me to perpetuate the
priesthood unto you.

32. "Thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation."] — Thou shalt
live to know that an enemy (the Philistine) hath taken possession
of my ark and tabernacle.

III. i . " And the Avord of the LORD was precious in those days ;
there was no open vision."] — It was a rare and unusual thing for
the Lord to reveal his will by visions to any man in those days ;
and if privately he did thus speak unto some one, yet the public
use of prophecy was a long time laid down.

7. "Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD."]— Samuel was
not yet acquainted with the voice of the Lord.

BP. HALL, VOL. III. I

114 PARAPHRASE UPON

IV. T. "And the word of Samuel came to all Israel."] — And
these words of Samuel, which God had by him spoken concerning
Eli, came to the notice of all Israel.

VI. 5. " Ye shall make images of your emrods, and images of
your mice."] — In acknowledgment that these judgments come from
the hand of the Lord, ye shall make the fashions both of the erne-
rods and of the mice, wherewith ye are annoyed, in gold ; and
offer them up to God, for an expiation of that offence which we
have done against him.

19. " And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had
looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty
thousand and threescore and ten men."] — He smote some of the
men that were priests and Levites, of Bethshemesh ; because,
contrary to the charge of the Lord, they looked into the ark : and
of the common people, who resorted thither upon the report of
the return of the ark, he smote fifty thousand and threescore and
ten men, for the same presumption and curiosity.

VII. 2. " And all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD."]
— All the house of Israel, being humbled by their servitude under
the Philistines, made great moans and lamentations to God for re
mission and favour.

6. " And drew water, and poured it out before the LORD," &c.]
— And drew water in great abundance, and washed, and purified
themselves before the Lord from their long and general unclean-
nesses.

X. 5. "After this thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is
a garrison of the Philistines."] — After this, thou shalt come to the
hill of Gibeah, which is consecrated to God, in that there is a col
lege of the sons of the prophets on the one side, as there is a gar
rison of the chased Philistines on the other.

Ibid. " Thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down
from the high place with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and
a harp before them ; and they shall prophesy."] — Thou shalt meet
with a company of prophets and their scholars coming down from
Gibeah, with much variety of the cheerfullest music, which they
shall use for the raising up of their spirits, and composing of their
thoughts in a preparation to their prophesying, which they shall
take up before thee.

6. "And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou
shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man."]
— Thou shalt find thyself suddenly endued with the same spirit,

I. SAMUEL IV. i.— XV. 29. 115

wherewith they are moved ; and enabled to prophesy as they do ;
and shalt feel a sensible alteration in thyself, by reason of those
extraordinary graces which shall be wrought in thee.

9. "God gave him another heart."] — God wrought a sensible
change in him by these new abilities which he infused into his
heart.

1 2. " One of the same place answered and said, But who is
their father?"] — Look not unto the men themselves, but look
unto the hand of that God who hath inspired them : what
need you to marvel that Saul prophesies? These other, whom
ye see, have not this power from their parents, but it is the gift
of God ; which is equally free, wheresoever he pleaseth to be
stow it.

XIII. 13. "For now would the LORD have established thy king
dom upon Israel for ever."] — That kingdom whereinto thou wert
elected should have been all thy life established unto thee ;
which now, by this sin, thou hast lost the right unto, ere thou be
thoroughly settled in it.

19. "Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of
Israel."] — Such was the jealousy and tyranny of the Philistines
over their tributaries, the Israelites, that as they had despoiled
them of those weapons which were taken from the Ammonites, so
they would not suffer a smith amongst them who might furnish
them with new.

XIV. 10. " But if they say thus, Come up unto us; then we
will go up : for the LORD hath delivered them into our hand.1'] —
I find a strong instinct from God, assuring me, that if the Philis
tines shall say to us, Come up to us, God would have us go up,
and we shall speed accordingly : this shall be a watchword from
God to us presaging our certain victory.

27. " His eyes were enlightened."] — He received new strength,
whereby all his senses were cheered and revived.

41. " Give a perfect fo«."] — Do thou, O Lord, by this lot clearly
and perfectly show who is guilty this day.

XV. 23. "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft."] — Thou
wilt grant that witchcraft is a most heinous and abominable sin ;
I tell thee, that this thy disobedience to God's co n n and isnolcss
odious to him than that witchcraft which thou justly hatest and
punishest in others.

29. " And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent.'']
—He that is the holy and strong God of Israel, as he hath decreed

I 2

116 PARAPHRASE UPON

thy kingdom to another ; so he will be sure not to falsify his word,
nor retract that his just purpose.

35. " And the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over
Israel."] — And God did (as those do which repent them of their
former actions) profess to undo that which he had done in setting
up Saul ; and therefore did now cast him off, and anoint another
in his stead.

XVI. 14. " But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and
an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him."] — And the Lord took
from Saul those graces of wisdom and moderation wherewith he
had endued him, and gave power to an evil spirit to seize upon
him, and to vex him with phrensy and distemper.

23. " And the evil spirit departed from him."] — By the sweet
and holy music of David, the spirits of Saul were so composed for
the time, and calmed, that he brake not forth into his wonted
fury.

XVII. 29. " What have I now done ? /* there not a cause ?"] —
Is it not a just reason that my father hath sent me hither for your
good ? Have I not a lawful business here ? Wherein then have I
given thee cause of displeasure or exception ?

58. " And Saul said to him, Whose son art thou, thou young
man ?"] — And -Saul, having never seen David till this occasion of
vanquishing the Philistine, (which fell out before his phrensy, and
David's playing before him,) said unto David, Whose son art thou,
thou young man ?

XVIII. i . " And it came to pass, when he had made an end of
speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the
soul of David."] — When Saul had called David to the court, and
entertained him as an attendant there, it came to pass, that, upon
his conference with Saul, the heart of Jonathan was deeply affected
towards David.

10. " And he prophesied in the midst of the house."] — And he
carried himself as a man distracted of his senses, both in his
speeches and motions.

XIX. 20. " And they also prophesied."] — See chapter x. 6, and
xviii. 10.

24. " And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied be
fore Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and
all that night."] — And he stript himself of his military habit, or
of his kingly attire, and carried himself in a wild distracted
fashion, and lay down so disrobed all that day and that night ;

I. SAMUEL XV. 35.— XXV. 37. 117

appearing before Samuel in the habit and fashion of a prophet,
amongst the rest.

XX. 26. " He is not clean ; surely he is not clean/'] — Some
legal uncleanness hath happened unto him, that hinders him from
this holy feast ; for the law forbids any unclean person to eat of
these holy sacrifices.

30. " Thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion,
and unto the confusion of thy mother's nakedness."] — This thy
favour to David shall be to thine own wrong and shame ; since by
this means thou shalt be defeated of the kingdom, as if thou wert
base born, and therefore uncapable to succeed me : and to the
shame of thy mother, who shall by this act be proclaimed an
adulteress, and a dishonourer of my bed.

XXI. 4. " But there is hallowed bread ; if the young men have
kept themselves at least from women."] — There is hallowed bread,
which having been consecrated to the Lord, may not (thou know-
est) be received by any ordinary person, much less by any that is
unclean ; but in this necessity, if the young men have abstained
from the use of women, and have kept themselves this way unde-
filed, I shall condescend to give it unto them.

5. " The vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is
in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in
the vessel ;" (or, as in the margin, " especially when this day
there is other sanctified.")] — The bodies of the young men are
this way undefiled ; and the bread, however consecrated, is unto
us, in this case of necessity, but as common bread, so as we may
lawfully receive it ; especially when as this day there is other
bread sanctified according to the law, in the room thereof.

ii. "Is not this David the king of the land?"] — Is not this
David that sways so much in Israel ?

XXIV. 3. " To cover his feet."] — To discharge the necessities
of nature.

13. "Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked : but mine hand
shall not be upon thee."] — Were I such as thou supposest me,
wicked, surely wicked acts would proceed from me ; but now thou
findest how far I am from any villanous intention against thee ;
neither shall my hand lift up itself against thee to thy hurt.

XXV. 22. " If I leave of all, &c., any that pisseth against the
wall."] — If I leave so much as a dog alive in all the house of
Nabal.

37. " That his heart died within him, and he became as a

118 PARAPHRASE UPON

stone."] — Nabal was so deeply stricken with an apprehension of
the danger that was towards him, by the relation of his wife, that
his heart was cold within him ; and he became stupid, and sense
less with fear and astonishment.

XXVI. 19. " They have driven me out this day from abiding
in the inheritance of the LORD, saying, Go, serve other gods."] —
They have driven me away from God's people, and from his holy
ordinances ; and have, in effect, as good as said, Go, serve other
gods.

XXVIII. 6. " Neither by Urim nor by prophets."] — God hath
withdrawn himself from Saul ; and gave no answer to him, either
by his priest or by his prophets.

15. "And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me,
to bring me up ?"] — And the evil spirit, which appeared in the
likeness of Samuel, as counterfeiting the speech of the prophet
also, said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up ?

19. " Shalt thou and thy sons be with me."] — To morrow shalt
thou and thy sons be dead men.

XXXI. 10. " They fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan."]
— They hanged up Saul's body on the wall of the city of Bethshan.

II. SAMUEL.

I. 9. " Stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me ; for anguish
(or, my coat of mail) hindered me, that my life is yet whole in
me."] — Do thou put me out of pain in killing of me ; for though
I have offered to do this despatch upon myself, yet the coat of
mail which is upon me hath hindered my weapon from freely
entering into my body ; so as my life is yet, to my sorrow, left
whole and entire in me.

1 8. " Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of
the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher."] — Upon
too good experience of the advantage which the Philistines had of
Israel by the skill in shooting, he caused the men of Judah to be
trained up hi the use of the bow ; as it is also recorded in the civil
annals of Judah.

21. " Nor fields of offerings.""] — Let there be upon you no fruit
ful fields, that may yield offerings of first fruits, and tithes unto
the tabernacle of God.

II. 14. " Let the young men now arise, and play before us."] —
Let the young men arise, and skirmish before us.

26. " Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter

I. SAMUEL XXVI. 19.— II. SAMUEL VI. 14. 119

end?"] — Dost thou not consider, that the remembrance of so
much Israeli tish blood shed by their brethren will be once
grievous unto thee?

27. "As God liveth, unless thou hadst spoken, surely then in
the morning the people had gone up every one from following
his brother."] — As the Lord liveth, thou art the only cause of
this bloodshed ; for if thou hadst not made that challenge, and
provoked us thereby to fight, surely in the morning the people had
peaceably departed without giving any blow to their brethren.

III. 8. "Am I a dog's head?"] — Am I so base a person in
thine eyes, that thou shouldst think fit to charge me in this chal
lenging fashion ?

33. "Died Abner as a fool dieth?"] — Did Abner die as cow
ards or malefactors are wont to do?

34. " Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters :
as a man falleth before wicked men, so fellest thou."] — Their
hands use to be bound, and their feet fettered ; and so they are
forced to undergo foreseen death : it was not so with thee, O Ab
ner ; thy hands and thy feet were free ; as the valiantest man may
be surprised by the violence of a wicked enemy, so wert thou
surprised and slain.

V. 6. " Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou
shalt not come in hither."] — This our city is so defenced of itself,
that we care not for all thy forces ; and if there were none but
the blind and the lame, impotent persons, in it, thou shalt never be
able to take it : those very blind and lame do boldly defy thee.

8. " Wherefore they said," (or, as the margin, Because they
said, even) the blind and the lame," &c.] — Because they had said
(even the blind and the lame, in a presumption of the strength of
their forts, had said) He shall not come into the city, nor enter
into our houses.

VI. 7. " And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uz-
zah."] — And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah
for his presumption in touching the ark, which should have been
carried on the shoulders of sacred persons, not on a cart, as the
Philistines had placed it ; and though it might be carried by the
sons of Levi, yet might it not be touched by them.

14. "And David danced before the LORD with all his might;
and David was girded with a linen ephod."] — And David testi
fied the joy of his heart by the vehement and cheerful motions of
his body, in a grave and holy manner, dancing before the ark of

120 PARAPHRASE UPON

God ; and, for the more freedom and ease of that motion, had
girded a linen garment close about him.

20. " Who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the hand
maids of his servants."] — Who, casting off the robes of majesty,
(which would have become his person and this action,) and, ar
raying himself basely, exposed himself and his gestures to the
scorn and derision even of boys and girls in the street.

23. "Had no child unto the day of her death."] — Michal was
punished with barrenness all the days of her life.

VII. 14. " I will chasten him with the rod of men."] — If he
offend me, I will chastise him gently and favourably ; as loving
parents use to correct their dearest children.

15. " My mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it
from Saul, whom I put away before thee."] — I will not utterly
take away the kingdom from his posterity, as I took it from
Saul, to give it unto thee, but will perpetuate it spiritually to
thy seed.

VIII. 2. "And he smote Moab, and measured them with a
line, casting them down to the ground ; even with two lines mea
sured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive."] —
He subdued the country of Moab, and divided it out as he thought
good, casting down their cities ; and so proportioning his execu
tion, that he put to death two parts of the inhabitants, and suf
fered one third part at the least to live and become tributary.

IX. 7. "Thou shalt eat bread at my table continually."] — Thou
shalt be provided for, upon my charge, all thy life long.

X. 6. " Saw that they stank before David."] — That they had
made themselves odious unto David in offering so foul an affront
to his ambassadors.

XI. i. "After the year was expired, at the time when kings
go forth to battle"'] — In the turning of the year, even in the
spring time, when kings are wont to draw their forces out of the
garrison into the field.

XII. 5. "He that hath done this thing shall surely die ;" (or,
" is the son of death")]— He that did this thing hath well de
served death.

8. "I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives
into thy bosom," &c.] — I gave into thy power and command thy
master's house and thy master's wives; both the persons and
houses and substance that pertained to Saul, to be at thy dis
posing.

II. SAMUEL VI. 20.— XVI. 10. ig]

1 7. " The elders of his house."]— The chief officers of his house.

25. " And he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD."]

And he called his name Jedidiah, Beloved of God, because of that
gracious word of promise and acceptance which the Lord had
formerly spoken concerning him, 2 Sam. vii. 14, 15, &c.

31. "And put them under saws, and under harrows of iron,
and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick
kiln."] — And he put them to very sore and painful deaths upon
the command of God, causing them to be sawn to death, and to be
torn with harrows of iron, and hewn with axes ; and as they had
been guilty of burning their children in the fire to Molech, so he
caused them to be used, burning them in the brickkiln.

XIII. 13. " Thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel."] — Every
one that hears it will condemn thee of great wickedness and folly ;
in that, by this lewd act, thou wilt cast thyself out of the likelihood
of succeeding in the kingdom of Israel.

20. " He is thy brother ; regard not this thing."] — He is thy
brother, and therefore, though he of all other should not have
done this villany to thee, yet, since he hath done it, have thou so
much respect to the honour of our blood and family as not to pro
secute it against him.

XIV. 9. " My lord, 0 king, the iniquity be on me, and on my
father's house : and the king and his throne be guiltless."] — If
there be aught amiss in forbearing to execute revenge upon the of
fender, I take it wholly upon myself; thou, 0 king, and thy throne
shall be herein guiltless.

14. " For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the
ground, which cannot be gathered up again ; [because he hath
not taken away his life, he hath also devised means,] that his ba
nished be not expelled from him."] — Our very life consists in his,
and we are utterly lost if such an hope of succession be rigorously
cut off ; which it is a sign that God would have continued, in that
he hath not, all this while of his banishment, taken him away, but
hath now made this means unto thee for his restoring.

36. "After the king's shekel."] — According to the ordinary
weight of the shekel in civil use of trade, every shekel weighing
two drams and sixteen grains.

XV. 19. "Abide thou with the king."] — Abide thou with this
king that would be, this usurper Absalom. So also verse 35.

XVI. i o. " So let him curse, because the LORD hath said unto
him, Curse David."]— The Lord hath, for my trial and affliction,

122 PARAPHRASE UPON

thought good to make use of this man's tongue to revile and curse
me ; which, though it be a sin in this wicked man, yet it is most
wisely and justly ordered of God for my humiliation and exercise
of my patience.

1 2. " It may be that the LORD will look on mine affliction, and
that the LORD will requite me good for his cursing this day."] —
It may be that the Lord will have pity upon my sorrow and ag
gravated affliction, and will graciously reward my patient suffering
with a blessing, instead of those curses which are thrown at me
this day.

23. " Was as if a man had inquired at the oracle of God."] —
The counsel of Ahithophel was held so wise, so certain, so success
ful, as if it had come from the very oracle of God.

XVII. 3. "The man whom thou seekest is as if all returned:
so all the people shall be in peace."] — It is but one man whom
thou seekest : if he were taken away, which I shall this night un
dertake to do, all will be quiet ; all the people will return to thee
in peace.

9. " When some of them be overthrown at the first, that who
soever heareth it will say," &c.] — When some of thy men shall be
discomfited in the first encounter, the rest will be with the noise
thereof, disheartened.

23. "Home to his house, to his city, and put his household in
order, and hanged himself."] — He returned home and made his
will ; and as one that took care for all things save his soul, when
that was done, hanged himself.

XVIII. 8. " And the wood devoured more people that day than
the sword devoured."] — And the wood, by reason of the thickets
and ditches and pits that were in it, was the occasion that more
were slain than could have been slain in an open field, upon a clear
pursuit, by the sword of the enemy.

9. " And his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up
between the heaven and the earth ; and the mule that was under
him went away."] — And his head was caught fast within the grains
of a spreading oak ; and thus, his mule running from under him,
he was hanged betwixt heaven and earth.

18. "For he said, I have no son to keep my name in remem
brance: and he called the pillar after his own name."] — For he
said, Those two sons which I had are now dead, and I have no
means to keep a remembrance of my name ; this pillar therefore
shall remain for a monument of me.

II. SAMUEL XVI. 1 2.— XXII. 8. 123

XIX. 13. " And say ye to Amasa, Art thou not of my bone, and
of my flesh ? God do so to me, and more also, if thou be not cap
tain of the host before me continually, in the room of Joab."]

Go, say to Amasa, Art not thou my near kinsman, my sister's
son ; of the same flesh and blood with me ? As I look for any
favour from God, or would avoid his heaviest judgments, my full
purpose and resolution is, that thou shalt be the general of all my
forces during thy life, in the stead of Joab ; whom, upon the just
reason of his murders and insolency, I have decreed to discard.

22. "Do not I know that I am this day king over Israel?"]

Do not I know, that this is the day wherein I am restored unto
and settled in the kingdom of Israel ?

29. "Why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have
said, Thou and Ziba divide the land."] — Trouble not thyself about
these matters. I have, in my first sentence, set an order in these
affairs, which I do still decree to make good ; That Ziba should
till and husband those lands to thy use, so as he may receive one
moiety of the profits for his labour, and the rest may accrue unto
thee, whom I have made the Lord of them.

XX. 2. " So every man of Israel went up from after David, and
followed Sheba the son of Bichri."] — So the men of Israel, taking
advantage of that emulation which was betwixt them and the men
of Judah, fell off from their lawful king, and followed Sheba the
son of Bichri.

18. " Then she spake, saying, They were wont to speak in old
time saying, They shall surely ask counsel at Abel : and so they
ended the matter."^ — They said in the beginning of this war,
Surely they will treat with the men of Abel for peace, according
to the charge which God hath given in his law ; which if you had
done, this business had been at an end.

XXI. 2. "And Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the
children of Israel and Judah."] — And Saul thought to slay the
Gibeonites, in a misgrounded zeal to the children of Israel and
Judah ; in that he desired to free the land of all that were
strangers in blood, according to the misapplied charge which they
had of old received from God ; and to put it clearly into the hands
of the Israelites.

XXII. 8. "Then the earth shook and trembled; the founda
tions of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth."] — God
did by manifest tokens declare his power, and his gracious will to
deliver me; and to avenge mine enemies: he caused the earth

124 PARAPHRASE UPON

therefore to tremble and shake ; and the very heavens seemed to
be moved, in the sense of his heavy displeasure against my ad
versaries.

9. " There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of
his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it."] — He gave testi
monies of his fury and indignation against mine enemies : so vehe
ment was his wrath, that even smoke seemed, to speak after the
manner of men, to come out of his nostrils ; and so hot a fire out
of his mouth, that even coals were kindled by it.

10. "He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and dark
ness was under his feet/'] — This lower part of the heaven was so
affected as if God had, in the demonstration of his power, come
down into it ; and, if we may describe him by our weak human
representations, under his feet, in the lowest region of his air,
there was a palpable darkness.

ii." He rode upon a cherub, and did fly ; and he was seen
upon the wings of the wind."] — He used the ministration of his
angels and of his winds, to exhibit his powerful presence unto
men ; and in them was his mighty power acknowledged.

12. "He made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters,
and thick clouds of the skies."] — And, as we men are wont by
tents and pavilions to shelter ourselves from the view of others, so
did he cast darkness and thick clouds round about the place of his
appearance.

iq. "Through the brightness before him were coals of fire

»J O o

kindled."] — Then the Lord sent abroad his flashes of lightning,
with the flames whereof much combustible matter was consumed.

15. "He sent out arrows."] — He sent out his thunderbolts out
of his clouds, as arrows from his bow.

17. " He drew me out of many waters."] — He delivered me
from many troubles and persecutions, which, as some deep and
violent waters, would have drowned me.

24. " I was also upright before him, and have kept myself from
mine iniquity."] — I was sound and sincere in my intentions and
carriages before him ; and have, by his grace, kept myself free
from giving full scope to those sins whereto I am inclined.

25. " The LORD hath recompensed me according to my right
eousness."] — Therefore the Lord, who hath graciously wrought
this sincerity in me, will crown his own work, and will deal with
me according to my righteousness.

26. " With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful," &c.]

II. SAMUEL XXII. 9.— XXIV. j. 125

— O Lord, thou art such to men as they do approve themselves to
thee ; with the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful, &c.

27. " And with the fro ward thou wilt show thyself unsavoury."]
— With those that are wicked and walk perversely in their evil
ways, thou wilt deal severely ; and by thy heavy judgments wilt
let them feel the weight of thy displeasure.

30. " For by thee I have run through a troop : by my God
have I leaped over a wall."] — By thy power I have broken through
the troops of my enemies, and have discomfited the Moabites
and Ammonites and Philistines, and other my professed adver
saries ; and, when they have betaken themselves to their strong
forts, by thy help I have scaled and won them.

34. " lie maketh my feet like hinds' feet : and setteth me upon
my high places."] — Thou hast given me agility of body and
quickness of motion to surprise mine enemies unexpectedly, and
hast by this means settled me in the possession of their strongest
holds.

46. " Strangers shall fade away, and they shall be afraid out of
their close places."] — Those strangers, which for fear have dis
sembled their submission to me, are ready upon every occasion to
fall off from me ; but when they have thus revolted, they shall be
stricken with fear of me, even in their most retired and defenced
places.

XXIII. 3. " The rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth
over men must be just."] — He that is the sure refuge and defence
of Israel hath said of me, to Samuel his prophet, that I, whom my
God hath appointed to rule over Israel, should be upright and just
in my government.

5. "Although my house be not so with God ; yet he hath made
with me an everlasting covenant."] — Although I have not in every
point been answerable to that which God hath required of me
and foretold concerning me, yet, in his great mercy, he hath made
an everlasting covenant with me.

17. "Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy
of their lives ?"] — Is not this water purchased with the extreme
hazard of the blood and life of those men which went to fetch it ?

XXIV. i. "And again the anger of the LORD was kindled
against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go,
number Israel and Judah." See i Chron. xxi. i.]— After God was
appeased for his former displeasure, and had taken away the
famine from Israel, God was again moved to anger by the sins of

126 PARAPHRASE UPON

Israel ; and thereupon he left David to himself, and gave power
unto Satan to suggest unto David thoughts of presumption, stirring
him up to number the people of Israel and Judah ; that he might
raise unto his own heart a proud confidence in his own strength.

1 6. "The LORD repented him of the evil," &c.] — The Lord
did, as men do when they repent them of what they have done,
inhibit any further proceedings of that plague.

23. " All these did Araunah, as a king give."] — All these did
Araunah, in a bountiful and royal manner, offer to give unto king

David.

I.KINGS.

I. ii. "That Adonijah doth reign."] — That Adonijah hath
plotted for the kingdom ; and hath in a sort possessed himself
of it.

50. "And Adonijah arose and went, and caught hold on the
horns of the altar."] — And Adonijah, which had not the grace to
consult with God in his challenge of the crown of Israel, now,
through fear, had recourse to the altar of God ; as thinking, under
the protection thereof, to avoid that death which by his usurpation
he had deserved.

II. 5. " And shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood
of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes
that were on his feet."] — How, in a profession of peace, he did,
after an hostile manner, shed the blood of two noble captains,
Abner and Amasa ; and put up his sword, all bloody, into his
sheath ; and walked with his feet distained with innocent blood,
in a bold and careless fashion, thinking to bear out his hateful
murder.

9. " Hold him not guiltless."] — Take thou all advantages to let
him feel how heinously he hath offended, and proceed against
him upon any other just pretence.

22. " Ask for him the kingdom also ; for he is mine elder bro
ther; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Jacob
the son of Zeruiah."] — Adonijah hath already the advantage of
age, for he is my elder brother ; and of the guard and strength of
soldiery, for Joab is joined to him ; and of the countenance of the
priesthood, for Abiathar is for him ; and now, what wants he but
a match with the king's own bedfellow ? yield him this, and I, by
that wisdom wherewith God hath endued me, know well, that his
next step will be into a throne.

31. "Do as he hath said, and fall upon him," &c.] — Since he

II. SAMUEL XXIV. 1 6.— I KINGS IV. i. 127

will needs die there, there let him die ; for the law of God doth
not allow any protection for wilful murder, from his own taber
nacle or altar : rather he defiles the altar than the altar can
assure him.

III. i. "And took Pharaoh's daughter," &c.] — And Solomon
made affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt ; and took Pharaoh's
daughter to wife, upon her yielded conformity to that holy religion
which he professed.

2. " Only the people sacrificed in high places because there was
no house built unto the name of the LORD, until those days."] —
In the meantime, till the house of God was finished, wise and holy
Solomon would not allow the people to sacrifice any otherwhere
than in those high places which his father had consecrated ; that
is, in Gibeon, where was the tabernacle, and in Jerusalem, where
the ark was.

IV. 21. "From the river unto the land of the Philistines, and
unto the border of Egypt."] — From the famous river Euphrates
unto the land of the Philistines, and from thence unto the borders
of Egypt.

30. "And Solomou's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the
children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt.1"] —
Whereas, those of the East and of Egypt were famous above all
the world for the fame of their wisdom, and knowledge of all the
secrets of nature, of the motions of the heavens, and of the virtues
and operations of all plants, and of the qualities of all sensitive
creatures, Solomon exceeded them all in all these kinds.

32. "He spake three thousand proverbs."] — He spake three
thousand wise sentences ; out of which are collected those which
in the book of his Proverbs are reserved to the use of posterity,
as the sacred monuments of a divine wisdom.

33. "And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in
Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall."] —
Out of that divine illumination, which was given to him from above,
he discoursed of all plants, from the tallest cedar to the very hyssop,
or moss, that grows upon the wall.

V. 4. " There is neither adversary nor evil occurrent."] — There
is neither any public enemy nor any cross accident that might
hinder this holy work of building a temple to the Lord.

VI. i. "In the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in
the month Zif, which is the second month."] — So great a work
could not be suddenly done : there must be a just time for the

128 PARAPHRASE UPON

gathering of all the materials ; for felling, hewing, seasoning of
the timber. In the fourth year therefore of his reign did Solo
mon begin this magnificent structure of the temple, and in the
second mouth, which, by God's own computation, was the month
of April.

4. " And for the house he made windows of narrow lights."] —
And for the temple he made windows, narrow without and large
within, for the more clear transmitting of the light into all the
parts of the house.

30. "And the floor of the house he overlaid with gold, within
and without."] — And the floor of the temple he overlaid with gold ;
not only in that part which was within the partition of the oracle
or Holy of Holies, but in the outer part thereof also.

38. "In the month Bui."]— In the month of October.

VII. 21." And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple;
and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin :
and he set up the left pillar, and he called the name thereof Boaz."]
— To figure out the firmness and stability of his Church for ever,
he erected two brazen pillars in the porch of the temple ; and
called the one, God shall establish, and the other, In it is strength,
implying, both what invincible strength the Church of God should
have, and whence it should be received.

23. "And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim
to the other."] — And he made a large and vast vessel of brass, for
the use of their manifold washings, which seemed like to some
spacious pond or sea, for the quantity of water which it contained :
the wideness whereof was ten cubits from the one side to the
other.

26. "It contained two thousand baths."] — It contained two
thousand of those measures whereof every one held six gallons of
our account.

VIII. 9. " There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of
stone."] — Within the ark under the cover thereof there was no
thing but the two tables of the Law, but on the verge of the ark
were Aaron's blossomed rod and the pot of manna reserved.

12. "The LORD said that he would dwell in the thick darkness."]
—The Lord hath said, that the thick cloud in his most Holy Place
should be the testimony of his presence there.

31. "If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath
be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before
thine altar in this house."] — If in a case of some great trespass

I. KINGS VI. 4.— X. 29. 129

against a man's life, good name, estate, there cannot be other
evidences brought forth, so as the matter must necessarily be
determined by the oath of the party accused ; and that oath
shall be solemnly required of him before thy presence at thine
holy altar.

64. " The same day did the king hallow the middle of the
court that was before the house of the LORD, &c. because the
brazen altar was too little,"" &c.] — And Solomon, by command
and instinct from God, required the priest to sanctify the pave
ment of the outer court, which was called The Court of the Priests,
to the use of the sacrifices ; for that the brazen altar, how great
soever it was, could not be capable of these many offerings.

65. " A great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath
unto the river of Egypt."] — A great congregation of all the sub
jects of Solomon, from the eastern borders of his dominions to the
western, that reach unto that arm of Nilus which runs towards
Palestine.

IX. 13. " What cities are these which thou hast given me, my
brother ? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day."]
— How mean and base are these towns which thou hast given me
in lieu of those great things wherewith I have furnished thee !
And he called them The displeasing land to this day, being
twenty cities in that upper Galilee which was after called Galilee
of the Gentiles.

X. 5. " There was no more spirit in her.'1] — She was so asto
nished at the exceeding wisdom of Solomon, that she was even
transported from herself with admiration.

n." Great plenty of almug trees.""] — Great plenty of the trees
of Heben wood, which, for the solidness and shining brightness,
were fit for the use and ornament of his building, and for instru
ments.

29. " And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six
hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty :
and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria,
did they bring them out by their means."] — And Solomon,
through the favour of his father-in-law the king of Egypt, had
the benefit of all the trade of Egypt, for chariots and horses
(wherewith that country had wont to furnish the neighbour re
gions) to pass through the hands of his merchants to his behoof;
so as, if the kings of the Hittites or of Syria would have either
chariots or horses, they must obtain them by the means of Solo-

BP. HALL, VOL. III. K

130 PARAPHRASE UPON

men's merchants at a set rate ; their chariots must cost them six
hundred shekels, their horses an hundred and fifty.

XI. i . " But king Solomon loved many strange women, toge
ther with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites," &c.]
— But Solomon, after he had holily and happily reigned five or
six and twenty years, at last gave himself over to his inordinate
lusts ; and added to the daughter of Pharaoh, his lawful wife, a
number of women that were strangers both in nation and religion.

5. " For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zi-
donians," &c.] — For Solomon gave way and countenance to the
idolatry of his wives, whom he willingly admitted to build houses
and altars to Ashtoreth.

7. " Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the
abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem."] —
Then did Solomon consent to the building of an high place for
Chemosh, the abominable idol of the Moabites ; and that, in the
very face of the Temple, on an hill over against Jerusalem.

36. " That David my servant may have a light alway before
me," &c.] — That David my servant may have one of his seed,
eminent in honour and authority, always, &c.

XII. 10. " My little finger shall be thicker than my father's
loins.'1] — The easiest impositions that I shall lay upon you shall
be more grievous than the heaviest that you complain of from my
father.

24. "For this thing is from me."] — I have ordered and con
trived this business for the just punishment of thy father's defec
tion from me.

28. " Behold thy gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up out of
the land of Egypt."] — Behold, 0 Israel, the remembrances and
representations of that God which brought thee out of the land of
Egypt : in and by these mayest thou recall and worship that deity.

31." And he made an house of high places, and made priests
of the lowest of the people."] — Instead of God's temple at Jeru
salem, he set up houses of pretended devotion, wherein he ap
pointed God to be worshipped in his own idolatrous fashion ; and
ordained priests accordingly, men that were of other tribes, besides
the sacred tribe of Levi, and men of base condition, fit for the
idols he had set up.

33. " He offered, &c. on the fifteenth day of the eighth month,
even in the month which he had devised," &c.] — And he ap
pointed, of his own head, the feast of tabernacles to be kept, not

I. KINGS XL i— XVIII. 10. 131

in the seventh month, as God had appointed, but in the eighth,
which was October ; that so the place, and time, and priests, and
gods, might be all of his own devising.

XIII. i. "And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.11]
— Not only did Jeroboam ordain base priests out of undue tribes
to offer unto God, but himself also would be taking presump
tuously upon him the execution of this sacred function ; he stood
therefore by the altar to burn incense.

XIV. 10. " That pisseth against the wall.11] See i Sam. xxv.22.
Ibid. " And him that is shut up and left in Israel."] — As well

him who, for his more sure defence, hath shut up himself within
the strong walls of your cities, as he that is left at liberty in the
fields and villages.

XV. 4. " Give him a lamp in Jerusalem.11] See chapter xi.
verse 36.

5. " He turned not aside from any tiling, &c. save only in the
matter of Uriah the Hittite.11] — He was not miscarried into any
heinous and enormous crime, whereby his profession was notori
ously blemished, all the days of his life, save only into that his
murder of Uriah the Hittite, and the sins that were appendant
unto it.

14. " But the high places were not removed."] — Those high
places wherein altars were built unto God in an ungrounded de
votion, contrary to the charge of God who had appropriated his
worship to the place which he should choose to put his name
there, remained still entire and undemolished, and were put to
that unwarrantable use.

XVII. i . " There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but
according to my Avord."] — There shall not be dew nor rain for
the space of these three years, and more, that this drought may
bring a just dearth upon Israel ; neither shall it then fall, but
upon my prayer to that God who hath thus decreed to punish
Israel, and to confirm his mission of me.

XVIII. 10. '•' There is no nation or kingdom whither my lord
hath not sent to seek thee ; and when they said, He is not here ;
he took an oath of the kingdom/' &c.] — There is no nation or
kingdom round about bordering upon Israel, whither my lord
hath not sent to seek thee ; and of all those neighbouring king
doms, whether tributary to him or allied, he hath by oath inquired
of thy presence.

17. "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?"]— Art thou the man

K 3

PARAPHRASE UPON

that hast brought this grievous judgment of dearth and drought
upon Israel ?

29. "They prophesied until the time of the offering of the
evening sacrifice."] — They ran up and down in a furious raving
and distracted fashion, until the time that the evening sacrifice
was, by God's appointment, wont to be offered.

41. "Here is a sound of abundance of rain."] — I have a sure
intimation from God that there is very great store of rain coming.

XIX. 18. " Yea I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the
knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which
hath not kissed him.'"] — Whereas thou complainest that thou art
left alone, know that I have reserved to myself many thousands
that are not at all infected with the idolatry of Baal, having nei
ther in heart nor in outward gestures yielded themselves to the
adoration of those false gods.

30. " Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother.""] —
Let me go and take leave of my father and mother, ere I betake
myself to follow thee.

XX. 4. " I am thine, and all that I have."] — I do acknowledge
myself a tributary unto thee, and yield myself over as thy liege
man.

9. " All that thou didst send for to thy servant at the first I
will do: but this thing I may not do."] — Thy first message,
which challenged a power and interest in my silver and gold and
houses and land, I was willing to yield unto ; but this, that thou
shouldst utterly take them away out of my possession, I may by
no means assent unto.

XXI. 3. " The LORD forbid it me, that I should give the in
heritance of my fathers unto thee."] — Were it a thing free and
lawful for me to do, I should not stick at the motion ; but thou
knowest that God hath expressly forbidden a final alienation of
the land of our inheritance. I dare not sin to pleasure thee.
See Levit. xxv. 23.

7. " Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel?"] — Is it for
thee, that art the king of Israel, to take a denial of so mean a
suit, or to be thus affected with the repulse? hast not thou power
enough to give thyself satisfaction ? Other spirits would become
sovereignty : away with this poor dejectedness.

9. " Proclaim a fast," &c.] — Proclaim a fast, as those that
have cause of a public humiliation, for this heinous sin of Naboth's
blasphemy.

I. KINGS XVIII. 29.— II. KINGS I. 9. 133

29. "Because Ahab humbleth himself before me, I will not
bring the evil in his days."] — That the world may see how well I
accept of a penitent and serious humiliation, I will so far regard
this dejectedness of Ahab, though I know it is not out of sound
contrition for his sin or any true grounds of grace, as that I will
defer these my threatened evils during his days, and reserve
them for his posterity.

XXII. 15. "And he said, Go, and prosper."] — What needest
thou ask me this question ? Thy prophets have sufficiently assured
thce already : go up, as they have bidden thee : no doubt thou
shalt prosper ; thou hast their word for security.

17. "And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as
sheep that have not a shepherd."] — Then I must needs tell thee,
that God hath revealed to me, that Israel shall in this war be put
to flight, and stray like sheep that have lost their shepherd : even
so shall they be distressed in their wandering, having lost thee
their king and master.

1 9-2 1 . " I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host
of heaven, &c. And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab,
that he may go up and fall at Rarnoth-gilead ? And there came
forth a spirit, and said, I will persuade him."] — It is certainly re
vealed to me, by an infallible vision from God, that he, in his just
judgment, hath decreed to give power to an evil spirit to delude
these thy four hundred prophets with lies, and to give thee over
to be misled by their delusions, to thine own destruction : and
this I do as surely know, as if I had seen the Lord sitting on his
throne, and consulting upon the way and means of plaguing thee
with these present seducements, and giving leave and commission
to the evil spirit to work this mischief unto thee.

34. " And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote
the king of Israel between the joints of the harness."] — A cer
tain man drew a bow, without any aim or intention of any special
mark, but only roving in common at the army of Israel ; and
behold, the arrow was, by a Divine providence, directed to strike
the king of Israel between the joints of his harness.

II. KINGS.

I. 8. " And they answered him, He was an hairy man, an4
girt with a girdle of leather about his loins/'] — He was a man
roughly clad, as one that professed to be a messenger of peni
tence and humiliation to the world.

134 PARAPHRASE UPON

9. " Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down."] —
Thou, which pretendest thyself to be a man of God, the king hath
peremptorily sent me to fetch thee down by strong hand into his
presence ; come down therefore, or I will force thy descent.

11. 9. "Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me."] — As
thou hast chosen me unto a nearer relation unto thee, and herein
hast preferred me to all the rest of the sons of the prophets ; so
give me this prerogative, that, according to the right of primo
geniture, I may have a double portion to theirs of that spirit and
those miraculous powers which are in thee ; which I know thou,
by thy last prayers, art able to eifect.

n." There appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and
parted them both asunder," &c.] — The angels of God, in the form
of a fiery chariot and horses, not so much in a terrible as a glo
rious fashion, appeared, and, parting them, took up Elias.

12. "O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the
horsemen thereof."] — O my father, whose spirit I hope to in
herit ; all the safety and strength of Israel was in thy holiness
and prevalency with God. This glorious chariot, that hath
fetched thee up from us, puts me in mind of what thou wert unto
us, the sure and glorious guard of thy Israel.

14. " He smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God
of Elijah?"] — If, according to the engagement and promise of
my master, it hath pleased God to give me a double portion to
my brethren of his spirit, let it now be showed in this trial ; as to
him, so to me, let the waters of Jordan be divided.

17. "And they urged him till he was ashamed; and he said,
Send."] — Since your importunity will take no denial, please your
selves ; try the event ; send your messengers.

III. 13. "Nay: for the LORD hath called these three kings
together, to deliver them into the hands of Moab."] — Nay, but
howsoever I have deserved to be unregarded in this suit, yet
have thou pity upon these other princes that are joined with me ;
and especially on that Jehoshaphat, whom thou knowest to be a
godly and gracious prince : let us not, for mere want of water, be
delivered into the hands of Moab.

15. " But now bring me a minstrel."] — Bring me hither a
minstrel, that, by his music, both my spirits, which have been too
much moved with indignation at thine unworthiness, may be com
posed, and that, by some divine ditty, your hearts may be lifted
up to an expectation of this great mercy from God.

II. KINGS I. 15— V. 18. 135

35. " Howbeit the slingers went about, and smote it."]— The
engineers, and such as were employed for battery, went about it ;
and, taking advantage of the fittest place of entry, smote it.

27. "Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in
his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And
there was great indignation against Israel : and they departed
from him, and returned to their own land."] — He took the eldest
son of the king of Edom prisoner, and offered to sacrifice him
upon the wall, if the kings would not break up their siege ; which
when the king of Israel refused to do, he, the said king of Moab,
offered that son of Edom for a burnt offering upon the wall : and
hereupon there was great indignation of Edom against Israel ; and
they, in much discontentment, departed to their own country.

IV. 1 6. "About this season, according to the time of life, thou
shalt embrace a son."] — About forty weeks hence, according to the
ordinary time of conception and birth, thou shalt bear a son.

23. "Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new
moon nor sabbath.11] — On solemn days I know it is our manner
to resort unto the prophet of God for the worship of our God, and
our own instruction ; but now, since it is neither new moon nor
sabbath, that might occasion thy journey to the man of God, what
business is it that calls thee to him ?

26. "And she answered, It is well.11] — Trouble not thyself
with this question : I shall give an account of it to thy master ; in
the mean time rest thou contented.

V. 18. " In this thing pardon thy servant, that when my master
goeth into the house of Bimmon to worship there, and he leaneth
on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon ; when I
bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the LOBD pardon thy servant
in this thing.11] — I do solemnly protest unto thee, that I will do
no worship to any god, save to the true God of Israel only ; and
I could well wish that I never might have occasion to come into
any of the temples of those idol gods ; but in this I shall desire to
be dispensed with, that, when upon the necessity of my place and
service, I must wait upon the king, into the temple of his Rimmon,
and my master (leaning on my arm) shall boAv to his false god ;
I may then (after public notice given of my free intentions) not out
of any respect of devotion to the idol, but out of my due service
to my master, bow down under my master in the house of Rim
mon ; which, however in itself it may be construed as a gesture
of adoration to the idol, yet, when the world shall be thoroughly

136 PARArHRASE UPON

possessed of my hatred of this idolatry, and my unfeigned pur
pose to reserve myself wholly for the true God, it shall perhaps
avoid that offence which otherwise might be taken at this, not re
ligious, but civil gesture : in this I beseech thee pray to God, that
he will not impute sin unto me, as one that would fain be ser
viceable and not idolatrous.

19. " And he said unto him, Go in peace.'1] —And he said unto
him, God speed thee well ; Go, and do that which may best stand
with the peace of a good conscience : for me, I give thee neither
warrant nor dispensation.

26. " Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned
again from his chariot," &c.] — Couldst thou vainly hope to elude
a prophet ? had not I notice from God of all the way that thou
wentest, and of all thy carriage towards Naaman, &c.

VI. 17. " LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see."]—
O Lord, do thou so illuminate and enable the eyes of this my ser
vant, that they may discern this spiritual aid that thou hast pro
vided for our succour and rescue.

33. "And he said, Behold, this evil is of the LORD; what
should I wait for the LORD any longer?"] — And when the pro
phet advised him to Avait still patiently upon God, he answered
desperately : Do ye not see to what height of misery we are come,
that mothers are forced to eat their own children ? It is the hand
of God that hath brought us to this extremity : worse we cannot
be : to what purpose is it to expect any favour from that hand
that hath thus plagued us? If ever God would have delivered
us, he would have done it ere we had come to this hopeless con
dition.

VIII. 10. " Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover;
howbeit the LORD hath showed me that he shall surely die."] —
Go, say unto him, The disease is not in itself deadly ; but such
as thou mayest well, in course of nature, recover : but withal, I
must tell thee, that the Lord hath showed me that he shall die by
another means, and shall not rise from the bed of his sickness.

13. "But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this
great thing?"] — Why doth my Lord speak so foul and bloody
things of me ? He must be extremely savage and cruel that should
do such violences. For me, I do not find in myself any such brutish
and tyrannous disposition.

IX. ii. "Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? And he
said unto them, Ye know the man, and his communication."]—

II. KINGS V. 1 1.— XIV. 9. 137

What business hast thou with this cracked-brain frantic fellow ?
What can a man of this robe have to do with thee ? And he said :
The habit shows you the man's profession, that he is a prophet :
and his profession intimates his errand.

22. "What peace, so long as the whoredoms and witchcrafts of
thy mother Jezebel are so many ?"] — What possibility is there of
holding good terms with thee, while the abominable idolatries and
superstition of thy mother Jezebel both remain, and are maintained
and countenanced by thee ?

X. 28. "Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of the land."]— Thus
Jehu destroyed all the idols of Baal, and rooted out all the false
gods from Israel.

29. "Howbeit/rom the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat,
who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from them, the golden
calves that were in Dan, and that were in Bethel."] — But that
part of idolatry which consisted in the false worship of the true
God, brought in by Jeroboam in those golden calves of Dan and
Bethel, Jehu did not at all oppose ; but countenanced and prac
tised it rather.

XL 5. " This is the thing which ye shall do ; A third part of
you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers of the
watch of the king's house," &c.] — Whereas the Levites, being
distributed into four-and-twenty courses, are appointed to keep
their changes every sabbath, to the number of about sixteen hun
dred, in every succession now ye shall so marshal yourselves, that,
while the new course enters, the former shall yet continue for this
turn undischarged ; and those that come in to succeed, shall divide
themselves into three parts, whereof one shall keep the watch of
the king's house, &c.

XIII. 19. "Thou shouldst have smitten five or six times; then
hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas
now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice."] — Upon my command
from God thou shouldst have smitten till I had stayed thy hand ;
which if thou hadst done, thy obedience had been rewarded with
frequent victories ; now thou shalt overcome but according to the
proportion of thine obedience, diligence, and faith in that word
which thou hast received.

XIV. 9. " The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar
that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to
wife : and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and
trod down the thistle," &c.]— Thou, the king of Judah, who art

138 PARAPHRASE UPON

but as a thistle, sentest to me, the king of Israel, who am a cedar
of Lebanon, to give thee aid, and join in an offensive war with
thee against the king of Edom : now, if some lawless rovers on
my part, which are as the wild beasts of that forest, have
trodden down thy thistle, and made a spoil of thy country, why
shouldest thou take it so highly as to undertake a war hereupon
with me ?

XVI. 1 8. " And the covert for the sabbath that they had built
in the house, and the king's entry without, turned he from the
house of the LORD."] — And that covered place of shelter, near to
the house of God, which was used for the shade and ease both of
the officers of the temple and of the people on the occasions of
their concourse upon the sabbath days, and the close walk or
cloister which the king had made from his house to the temple,
he defaced.

XVII. 9. " And they built them high places in all their cities,
from the tower of the watchman to the fenced city."] — They set
up their altars, and sacrificed to God in all high places, which
themselves, contrary to God's command, had erected, in all the
parts of the kingdom, from one side of the borders to the other :
no part was free, whether more solitary or more frequented.

33. " They feared the LORD, and served their own gods."] —
They made a formal profession of serving the Lord, and yet con
tinued the worship of their own false gods.

XVIII. 4. " He brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses
had made : for unto those days the children of Israel did burn
incense to it : and he called it JNehushtan."] — He brake in pieces
the brazen serpent that Moses had long since made and erected
in the wilderness as a type of that Christ by whom his people are
healed of the venomous stings of their sins ; which holy monument,
being reserved to this day, was grossly abused by the superstitious
Israelites, who burnt incense to it as a god : this Hezekiah pulled
down and defaced ; terming it, by way of indignation, as it was, a
piece of brass.

XIX. 3. " The children are come to the birth, and there is not
strength to bring forth."] — It is with us as with a woman in tra
vail, which hath not strength to bring forth her birth ; extreme
calamity hath seized upon us, of which we have no power to deliver
ourselves.

7. " Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a
rumour, and shall return."] — I will with a blast of wind send him

II. KINGS XIX. 7.— XXII. 14. 139

away ; for I will raise a rumour of Tirhakah's coming up against
his land, which shall fetch him off from you.

29. "Ye shall eat this year," &c.] — See Isaiah xxxvii. 30.

XX. 2. " Then he turned his face to the wall."] — For the greater
privacy of his meditation, he turned his face from the view of his
attendants towards the wall.

9. " Shall the shadow go forward ten degrees ?" &c.] — Shall
the shadow in one moment skip over ten degrees, so as the day
shall be so much shorter than ordinary ?

u." And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD : and he
brought the shadow back ten degrees, by which it had gone down
in the dial of Ahaz."] — And Isaiah prayed earnestly unto the
Lord ; and he recalled the motion of the sun ten degrees back
from the point where it was ; so as the day, which in ordinary
course consisted of twelve hours, was now protracted to two-and-
twenty : and that this retrograde motion might be sensibly dis
cerned, he caused it to be apparently seen and noted in the
famous dial of Jerusalem, which was called by the name of Ahaz.

19. "And he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my
days?"] — God hath dealt graciously with me herein; for I had
well deserved a speedy judgment upon myself, in my own person,
but lo, the mercy of God hath not proceeded thus against me, but
hath, notwithstanding my offence, promised peace and stability of
his wonted grace to me all my life.

XXL 3. "And worshipped all the host of heaven, and served
them."] — As one that affected to be an universal idolater, he wor
shipped all the spirits that rule in the air, and all the stars that
are fixed in heaven.

13. "And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria,
and the plummet of the house of Ahab/'] — I will take the same
course with Jerusalem that I have taken with Samaria ; and with
the wicked house of Ahab, which I have utterly rooted out from
before me.

XXII. 8. " I have found the book of the law in the house of
the LORD.""] — I have found the very original record of the book
of the Law which was left by Moses, and reserved in the Holy of
Holies by the command of God.

14. " Now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college."] —Now she
dwelt at Jerusalem, in the college which is set apart for the use
and inhabitation of the prophets ; as being, notwithstanding her
sex, of great eminence in that profession.

140 PARAPHRASE UPON

The Books of the CHRONICLES, consisting partly of genea
logies, and partly of the same histories repeated, have afforded
no use of this Paraphrase.

EZRA.

II. 62. " But they were not found : therefore were they, as pol
luted, put from the priesthood."] — Because their genealogy could
not be found and approved, they were held in the rank of ordinary
Israelites, men not sanctified for the holy office of priesthood ; and
therefore were accordingly put from their ministration.

63. " And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not
eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Uritn
and Thummim."] — And the governor or deputy (who was Shesh-
bazzar) said unto them, by the motion and information of the
Jews, that they should not be admitted to eat of those holy things
(whose use was peculiar to the sacred tribe) until there should be
a decision made of this question by a priest of God, who, by the
oracle of the breastplate, should give sentence and determination
hereof from God himself.

IV. 4. " The people of the land weakened the hands of the
people of Judah."] — The people of the land disheartened and dis
couraged the people of Judah from this holy enterprise of building
the temple of God.

to. " Whom the great and noble Asnapper brought over."] —
Whom the great and noble Esar-haddon, king of Assyria, brought
over. See verse 2.

IX. 2. " So that the holy seed have mingled themselves with
the people of the land."] — So as those, who are the chosen and
peculiar people pf God, the Jews, have matched themselves in
marriages with the heathenish and idolatrous people of the land.

8. " And to give us a nail in his holy place."] — To fasten us,
and to give us the hope of a settled being in this holy place ; as
some nail that is driven up to the head in some solid table that
cannot be removed.

NEHEMIAH.

II. 13. " And I went out by night by the gate of the valley,
even before the dragon well, and to the dung port," &c.] — And I
went out by night by the gate which opens towards the valley of
Jehoshaphat, which is to the south, over against that which is

EZRA 11.62— XIII. 4. 141

called the serpent's well, by reason of the sly creeping of it ; and
so to the dung port, towards the east, &c.

V. 5. " Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren," &c.]
— There is no difference in nature, in flesh or blood, betwixt us
and the rest of Israel : why should we, without any fault of our
part, be in worse condition than they ?

14. " I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the go
vernor."] — I and my family have not taken that allowance which
was appointed for the governor; so as, though I wielded the
place, yet I forbore to take the maintenance allotted unto it, both
of money and provision, in favour of the people, and respect to the
common good.

19. "Think upon me my God, for good, according to all that
I have done for this people."] — 0 God, thou, that art wont to
accept of and graciously to reward the good desires and works,
that are wrought by thy Spirit in and by us thy unworthy servants,
be thou pleased to receive and to crown these my good intentions
and endeavours towards this thy people.

VI. i o. "To Shemaiah, &c. who was shut up; and he said,
Let us meet together in the house of God."] — I came to Shemaiah,
who was, under pretence of devout humiliation and prayer for
my safety, shut up in his house; and he, pretending a tender care
of my person, advised that we shut up ourselves in the temple.

TI. "And I said, Should such a man as I flee?"] — Have I
taken upon me to be the governor of this people ; and have I, in a
godly resolution, gone through this work hitherto ; and shall I
now bewray any base fear or cowardice : and seem to set such a
price upon my life, as that I would protract it, by weak subducing
of myself and hiding my head in the temple ?

14. " My God, think thou upon Tobiah," &c.]— 0 my God, I do
not out of any private malice or spleen, or in any respect to the
affronts offered to my person, but in a sincere desire of thy glory,
beseech thee, to make known to the world how ill thou takest these
treacherous plots of Tobiah, and his complices, &c.

VII. 65. "Now the Tirshatha," &c.] See Ezra ii. 63,

XL ii. " Seraiah, &c. the son Ahitub, the ruler of the house of
God."] — Seraiah, the son of Ahitub, who was the man that had
the charge of the oversight of the temple ; both for the fabric of
it, and the good order to be kept in it.

XIII. 4. " Having the oversight of the chamber of the house of
our God."]— Having the oversight of that chamber of store

PARAPHRASE UPON

which pertained to the temple of the Lord ; wherein were laid up
all things that were of use for the sacrifices. See verse 5.

14. " Remember me, 0 my God," &c.] See chap. vi. verse 14.

25. "And I cursed them, and smote certain of them, and
plucked off their hair."]— I rated them, and reviled them, and
dealt so roughly with them, as that I proceeded to blows, and to
the tearing off their hair from their heads.

ESTHER.

1. 13. " Wise men, which knew the times."] — That were men
of excellent judgment and knowledge in all affairs; able to give
advice for the fittest times, and manners of performance, of all
actions.

19. "That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus."] —
That Vashti be no more admitted into thy presence as thy wife,
but be instantly dismissed.

II. 1 8. "And he made a release to the provinces," &c.] — For
the honour of his marriage, he gratified the provinces with pardons
and releases of those exactions whereof they complained, and
gave bountiful gifts amongst them, &c.

19. "Then Mordecai sat in the king's gate."] — Mordecai,
according to the place or office that he had in the court, sat in the
gate of the king.

III. 2. "But Mordecai bowed not, nor did reverence."] — But
Mordecai, whether for that he knew Raman to be of that blood
which by God's charge were exposed to the hatred and revenge
of Israel, or whether for that he thought the honour required was
more than was fit for a man, bowed not, nor did that reverence
which all others too officiously gave to Raman.

7. " In the first month, &c. they cast Pur, that is a lot, &c."]
— They did, by superstitious lots, seek to find out a day, which,
by their vain conjectures, might be most likely to be prosperous
for this their design.

Ibid. "In the month of Adar."] — In the last month in the
year, which answers to our February.

IV. 16. " If I perish, I perish."]— I will put my life in hazard :
I cannot venture it upon a better cause : I will do the act ; let
God give what issue he pleaseth.

13. " If he be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast
begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him."] — I have ever
observed a special hand of God upon that his peculiar people the

NEHEMIAH XIII. 14.— JOB I. 9. 143

Jews : their friends are wont still to prosper ; their enemies go
still to the worst : I fear the nation as much as I hate the man.

VIII. 9. " The month Sivan."]— In that month which answereth
to our May.

IX. 26. "Wherefore they called those days Purim."] — In
memory of those lots, which were cast by Haman for the prosper
ous success of his bloody enterprise against the Jews, they, being
now happily delivered, call the days of their deliverance by the
name of Purim.

JOB.

I. i. "There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was
Job ; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared
God and eschewed evil."] — In the land of Uz, which lieth upon
the borders of the Chaldeans, Sabeans, and Canaanites, there was
a man of the posterity of Abraham by Keturah, called Job ; and
he was sincere and true-hearted, and one that feared God, and
conscionably avoided all known and wilful wickedness.

3. " This man was the greatest of all the men of the east."] —
He was the greatest and wealthiest of all that posterity of Abra
ham, which were dispersed into the eastern countries.

6. "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present
themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them."]
— And, to speak after the manner of men, and to express the
counsels and proceedings of God by human allusions, on a time
God held his sessions ; and therein, the angels coming to present
their service unto God for the behoof of his children, Satan also
thrust him in amongst them into the presence of God.

7—9. " And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou ?
Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, &c. And the LORD
said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, &c. ?
Then Satan answered the LORD, Doth Job fear God for nought ?"]
— And, (as if there had been a real and vocal conference betwixt
God and Satan, concerning the proceedings with Job ; wherein
God should inquire of Satan whence he came ; and upon his
answer should, in an holy kind of confident insultation, commend
Job's perfection to this enemy of mankind ; which Satan spitefully
detracts from, and desires to have tried by several afflictions,) so
God most holily decreed to give power to Satan, for the proof of
Job's fidelity and patience ; and yielded to the several trials and
calamities which were brought upon Job.

11. i, 2, 4, 5. "Again there was a clay when the sons of God
came, &c. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou ?
&c. And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, &c.
But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh."]
— Satan, as not satisfied with that trial Avhich he had taken of
Job, in the loss of his oxen, sheep, camels, children, receives, as
if it had been upon his importunate and personal suit unto God»
commission from God to take a further trial of him in his person ;
in his flesh and bones, with the reservation of his life only.

9. " Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine
integrity? curse God and die."] — Dost thou still stand upon the
terms of retaining thine integrity with God, since it speeds no
better with thee ? Ywis thou hast fared much the better for thy
so humble and patient resigning of thyself into the hands of God.
It were as good for thee to despatch at once, and be rid out of
this misery. Curse God, and he will by his judgment make
speedy way for thee out of this lingering torment.

1 2. " They rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon
their heads toward heaven."] — They testified their exceeding
sorrow for his great affliction, by rending their clothes and strew
ing dust upon their heads.

13. "So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days
and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him."] — And they
were so affected and astonished with his grievous sufferings, that
they sat down silently by him, for the most part of seven days
and seven nights, abridging themselves of their wonted rest and
sustenance.

III. i . " After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day."]
— At the last, Job himself began to break this silence ; and, in
a pitiful complaint of his misery, weakly cursed the day wherein
he was born.

3. "Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night
wherein," &c.J— Would to God that day had never come, wherein
so wretched a man as I was born ; and now that it is unhappily
come, let it be ever noted for direful and ominous.

5. " Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it ; let a cloud
dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it."]— Let the
deepest and horriblest darkness make it uncomfortable; let a
thick cloud cover it ; and let a continued darkness make it terri
ble to all beholders.

1 2. " Why did the knees prevent me ? or why the breasts that

JOB II.— IV. 14. 145

I should suck?"] — Why were the knees of the midwife ready to
hold me, or why were the breasts ready to give me suck ?

14. "With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built deso
late places for themselves.1"] — With kings and great potentates of
the earth, who, to raise glory unto themselves, build sumptuous
houses in those places which, through their desolateness and bar
renness, seemed uncapable of any cost or magnificence.

23. " Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom
God hath hedged in?"] — Why is light cast away upon a man whom
God hath made so miserable, that there is no way to be hoped for
of his evasion from this calamity; whom God hath shut up in this
distress, without all possibility of escape ?

26. " I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I
quiet ; yet trouble came."] — Indeed, when I was at the best, I
never made any account of my life and welfare ; and yet this fear
and moderation of mind doth not now excuse me from misery.

IV. 6. "Is not this thy fear, thy confidence ?"] — Is not this, thy
storming and fretting at the hand of God, a plain argument that
all thy religion or pretended fear of God, was only upon a confi
dence that he would still bless and prosper thee ?

8. "Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity and sow
wickedness, reap the same."] — I have well seen and observed,
that men speed according to their actions, and reap the fruit of
their evil doings in evil sufferings.

11. "The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout
lion's whelps are scattered abroad."] — The tyrants and oppressors
of the earth, which are as strong and roaring lions, however they
may prevail with men, yet they are by the just and powerful God
disappointed of their purposed prey, and distressed with just want.

12. "Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear re
ceived a little thereof."]— If you think not fit to believe me, yet
believe the revelation which I lately had concerning thee : for I
had a secret intimation from God, wherein it pleased him to make
known to me what he judgeth of thine estate.

13. "In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep
falleth on men."] — When I was most seriously thinking of thee,
in the very deep of the night, at such time as othor men are over
taken and possessed with their dead sleep.

14. " Fear came upon me," &c.]— There came a great fear and
trembling on a sudden upon me, as a harbinger of that vision
which soon followed after it.

BP. HALL, VOL. III. L

146 PARAPHRASE UPON

15. " Then a spirit passed before my face ; the hair of my flesh
stood up."] — Then a spirit appeared before me, the presence
whereof made my hair to stand upright.

1 6. " But I could not discern the form thereof."] — It stood still
by me, but I could not discern what manner of visage it had.

18. "Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels
he charged with folly ."] — If the best and most glorious creatures
be compared with him, alas, what are they ! Behold, he finds not
any such stability or absoluteness in his very angels, as that,
setting aside his own gracious endowments of them, and his firm
decree concerning them, they can stand out in the challenge of
any perfection in themselves.

19. "How much less on them that dwell in houses of clay,"
&c.] — How much less can miserable man stand upon such points
with his Maker !

V. i. " Call now, if there be any that will answer thee : and to
which of the saints wilt thou turn?"] — Since thou standest upon
thine own justification so much, I appeal to any of the saints of
God upon earth : let any of them judge of this thy condition, and
say, whether there be not reason to charge thee with hypocrisy.

2. " For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy (or indigna
tion) slayeth the silly one.'1] — They will tell thee, in all experience,
that God in his most just judgment meets with the man, not that
is just, but that is wickedly foolish ; and that his indignation falls
heavy, even unto death, upon him that is grossly ignorant of God
and the things of his peace.

3. " I have seen the foolish taking root : but suddenly I cursed
his habitation."] — I have seen the wicked man, seemingly grounded
and flourishing in the world, but suddenly I gave him for gone,
and in my thoughts made full account of his utter extirpation.

6. " Although affliction cometh not out of the dust, neither doth
spring out of the ground;"]— Yet this misery and affliction, that
alights upon men, comes not either by chance, or of itself, or merely
from the second causes, whether of men or other creatures, but it
comes from above, and is inflicted by the Divine hand of supreme
and infinite justice ;

7. " Yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward."]
— And yet, even in the course of nature, man is born to trouble
and vexation ; and it is no less natural to him, to be tried with
manifold crosses here, than for the sparks of fire to fly upwards.

14. "They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in

JOB II. 15.— VI. 10, 147

the noonday as in the dark."] — They meet with unexpected
crosses in their designs, and find contrary events to what they
promised to themselves : when they made account of most joy,
they meet with heaviness.

19. "He shall deliver thee from six troubles: yea, in seven
there shall no evil touch thee."] — He shall save thee from sink
ing under many troubles ; and from the last and worst he shall
so rescue thee, that the evil of it shall not have so much as power
to touch thee.

23. "Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field.11]

All the creatures who are engaged in the quarrels of their Maker
shall now stand in good terms with tliee, and join together to thy
use and service.

24. " Thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin (or err).11]
— Thou shalt oversee thine affairs with good success, and not err,
or fail in the administration of them.

VI. 3. " Therefore my words are swallowed up."] — Such is the
greatness of my affliction, that it bereaves me of all words whereby
I should endeavour to express it.

4. " For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison
•^hereof drinketh up my spirits."] — The grievous pains that I feel
are so many poisoned arrows shot into my flesh by the almighty
hand of God, which have diffused their venom into all the parts
of my body and soul, and have even spent and wasted my spirits
with the woful sense of them.

5. "Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass?" &c.] — Can
ye imagine that I would cry out so bitterly if I did not feel a just
cause of my complaint ? Ye see the very dumb creatures do not
make their moan but when they find a sense of their want.

6. " Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt ? or is
there any taste in the white of an egg ? "] — Yet this is no small
addition to my sorrow, that ye speak unto me words that have no
savour of any comfort, but rather tend towards my further dejec
tion : surely there is no more relish in your speeches than in the
white of an egg without salt.

7. " The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sor
rowful meat."] — And yet these are they that I am forced to feed
upon for the present, though they be such as my soul hath too
much cause to abhor.

10. "Let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words
of the Holy One."]— Let him do me this favour, to take away my

L 2

148 PARAPHRASE UPON

life : let him not spare mo to my further vexation ; for I have been
faithful to him, and have not concealed the words of his mouth,
but have freely declared them to the world.

13. "Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven away from
me?"] — However ye labour to dishearten me, yet have not I the
testimony of a good conscience to bear me up ? Is there not true
spiritual wisdom yet remaining in me, to know both my God and
myself ?

j 5. " My brethren have dealt deceitfully with me, as a brook,"
&c.] — My kinsmen that came to comfort me are like a deceitful
current of land- waters in winter :

1 6. ""Which are blackish" by reason of the ice," &c.] — Which in
the cold season seem to be strongly covered with a firm ice ;

17. "What time they wax warm, they vanish."] — But when
the heat of the sun hath risen upon them, and warmer seasons come
in, they vanish away as if they had never been.

19. " The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba
waited for them."] — The troops of the Ishmaelitish merchants,
that trade unto Tema, made account to refresh themselves with
those streams in that dry wilderness, and so did the merchants
that traffick to Sheba.

20. " They were confounded," &c.] — And now find themselves
miserably disappointed, &c.

21. " For now ye are nothing," &c.] — Right such are ye
unto me; for now, howsoever ye formerly seemed, ye are as
nothing ; having utterly deceived my hopes of kindness and mercy
from you.

22. " Did I say, Bring unto me ? or, Give," &c.?] — Was I ever
beholden to any of you for a favour ? Did I ever crave of any of
you either gift or rescue ?

26. " Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one
that is desperate, which are as wind?"] — Do you imagine that I
speak nothing but light and idle words, and reprove me there
after ? or do ye account the passionate complaints of a man thus
desperately miserable to be no other than wind ?

29. " Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity ; yea, return
again, my righteousness is in it."] — Bethink yourselves well of the
cruel wrong ye have offered me, and go not on to charge me thus
unjustly : my righteousness and integrity is and shall be apparent
in this whole carriage of the matter.

VII. 2. " As a servant earnestly desircth the shadow."]— ^s a

JOB VI. 13.— VIII. 18. H9

scr'vant longeth after the approach of the night, when all things
are shaded in a common darkness.

5. " My flesh is clothed with worms and with clods of dust."]
My flesh, beyond all the ordinary condition of other men, is even
in my lifetime annoyed with worms that grow in my ulcerous sores,
and with cloddy scabs that fall off from me.

12. "Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over
me?"] — Am I as some boisterous or raging sea, or some huge
unruly whale, that thou shouldest need to set such bounds of re
straint upon me, and hold me in from passing out of this my
limited misery?

15. " So that my soul chooseth strangling."] — So that my soul
would rather, if I might have my free choice, wish to have my
sorrow ended with a present despatch by strangling, than thus to
linger in continual torment.

1 9. " How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone
till I swallow down my spittle ?"] — How long shall it be ere thou
wilt release thy heavy hand that is upon me, and give me but so
much respite as while a man may swallow down his spittle ?

21. " For now I sleep in the dust : and thou shalt seek me in
the morning, but I shall not be."] — For now I am dying ; and
when that brunt is past, if thou wouldst make further use of me,
for the manifesting of thy power and my patience, I shall not be
at all.

VIII. n, 12, 13. " Can a rush grow up without mire ? can the
flag grow without water ? "Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and
not cut down, it withereth, &c. And the hope of the hypocrite
shall perish."] — Look how ordinary a thing it is for the rush that
grows up without mire, or the flag that sprouts up without water,
to wither and die without any hand cutting it off ; so usual a thing
it is with God to cause the ungrounded hypocrite to perish, after
all the vain hopes that his professions have raised.

17. "His roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth the
place of stones."] — His roots are so vigorous that by the force of
their own inward moisture they can grow and spread, notwith
standing any opposition of rubbish or stones in their way.

1 8. " If he destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him,
saying, I have not seen thee."] — And if his master have a mind
to destroy him and root him up, the very place where he grew
shall not be acknown of him ; neither shall there be any mention
left that such a one grew there.

150 PARAPHRASE UPON

21. "Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with
rejoicing."] — Neither therefore will God leave thee in this ex
tremity (if thou be, as thou pretendest, upright with him) ; nor
will desist from mitigating thy affliction, so as that thou shalt re
ceive full and perfect consolation.

IX. 7. "Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and
sealeth up the stars."] — Who, when he pleaseth, can command
the sun not to rise in the morning that it may make day ; and can
forbid the stars to appear in the evening, and restrain the succes
sion of the night.

9. "Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the
chambers of the south."] — Who ordereth all the set seasons of
the year, and both maketh and disposeth of those remarkable
constellations by which the four seasons of the year are sensibly
distinguished and governed; Arcturus, which ariseth in autumn;
Orion, in winter, Pleiades, or the seven stars, in the spring ; and
those other stars, which lie hidden in the southern coasts of heaven,
which rise to us in the heat of summer.

21. " Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul:
I would despise my life."] — Though I were perfect, yet would I
not stand out in the justification of myself before his presence ;
but if he have determined my death, would willingly surrender my
life into his hands.

22. " This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroy eth the
perfect and the wicked."] — This is one especial thing that I have
noted and justly stood upon, that the outward proceedings of God
are indifferent towards all : he taketh away both the upright and
the wicked man.

24. "He covereth the faces of the judges thereof; if not,
where, and who is he?"] — He bringeth contempt upon the great
rulers of the earth ; and if it be not he that doth it, where and
who is he besides that hath this power, and executes these judg
ments ?

31. "Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own
clothes shall abhor me."] — Let me seem never so pure in mine
own eyes, yet, 0 Lord, the rigour of thy justice shall show me as
foul as the man that is plunged in some filthy ditch, who is so de
filed that his very clothes make him more loathsome.

X. 3. " Is it good unto thee that thou shouldcst oppress?"] —
O God, is it any profit or advantage to thy glory, that thou deal
est so rigorously with me ?

JOB VIII. 2i.— XII. 5. 151

i o. " Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me
like cheese ?"] — Hast thou not made me in a wonderful fashion
while of the liquid matter of my marvellous conception thou hast
formed this solid substance of my body, by several degrees of thy
powerful work ?

13. "And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know
that this is with thee."] — And though thou bestowedst so much
cost upon me in my formation, yet thou didst from eternity retain
in thyself this purpose of afflicting me : I know that this was from
eternity determined by thee.

17. "Thou renewest thy witnesses against me."] — Thou re-
newest the convictions of my sins which are thy heavy afflictions
upon me.

Ibid. — " Changes and war are against me."] — Varieties of trou
bles, by thine appointment, fight against me.

XI. 6. " And that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom,
that they are double to that which is !"] — If he would manifest
unto thee the hidden secrets of his wisdom, thou shouldest find
that in strict rigour he might justly inflict double upon thee to
that thou now sufferest.

10. "If he cut oft7, and shut up, or gather together, who shall
hinder him?"] — If he have purposed to alter the course of all
things, to destroy or to draw into a narrow compass those things
which are now at a large and diffused liberty, who can hinder his
will or proceedings ?

12. "For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a
wild ass's colt."] — For vain man will be taking upon him to be
wise, although indeed he is in himself no better than brutish.

1 8. "Yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy
rest in safety."] — If thou do but dig a place where to pitch thy
tent, thou shalt dwell there as safely as in a walled city.

XII. 4. " I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth
upon God, and he answereth him.""] — I am as one mocked and
scorned of you my neighbours ; and yet how meanly soever ye
please to think of me, I am, in my faithful invocations upon God,
heard and graciously answered by him.

5. "He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised
in the thought of him that is at ease."] — He that is near to his
ruin, as I now am, is unto those that prosper and are at case like
unto a lamp that is near burning out to the very snuff; and there-

152 PARAPHRASE UPON

fore despised by them for the present, however it have formerly
shined.

12, 13. "With the ancient is wisdom. With him is wisdom."] —
You have told me of your age and wise experience, wherein I de
tract nothing from you ; but what is your wisdom to God's ? He
is only, and allwise, &c.

XIII. 8. "Will ye accept of his person?"] — Do ye think he
hath need of an unjust gratification from you ; so as that he would
have you give him an undue favour in his cause out of by-
respects ?

j 2, " Your remembrances are like unto ashes."] — Whatsoever
thing of yours seems memorable, or what monument soever ye
shall set up to yourselves, it shall vanish away and be scattered
like ashes.

14. " Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put
my life in mine hand?"] — Wherefore do I give way to these de
sperate extremities as if I would tear my flesh in pieces with my
own teeth ? and why do I cast away all the care of my life, as now
past all possibility of recovery ?

15. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will
maintain mine own ways before him."] — Though God should have
determined thus to make an end of me, yet I will not cease to
cast myself upon his hands, and confidently to rely upon his
mercy; neither will I ever be driven from the defence of my
honest sincerity before him.

19. "For now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost."]
— I am so full of this grief that I cannot hold it in, and if I should
not thus give it vent, it would presently kill me.

20. " Only do not two things unto me : then will I not hide
myself from thee."] — And if it shall please God to vouchsafe to
argue this case with me, I shall desire but these two conditions of
him : and then I will not withdraw myself for fear from appearing
before him.

31. " Withdraw thine hand far from me : and let not thy dread
make me afraid."] — One is, that he would take off from me this
heavy hand of his present affliction, which overwhelms me with
the violence of it ; the other, that he would give me courage to
bear out this my humble contestation, so as I may not be con
founded with the terrors of his glorious majesty.

23. " How many are mine iniquities and sins? make thou me

JOB XII. 12.— XIV. 19. 153

to know my transgressions and my sin."]— 0 God, I cannot accuse
myself of wilful wickednesses against thee ; but if there be any
secret iniquity that I am not privy unto, do thou make it known
to me, and convince me of it.

25. " Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro ?"] — Alas, Lord,
am I a fit subject for thee to contend with ? 0 consider my weak
ness and my unworthiness, and enter not into judgment with my
vileness.

26. " Thou makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.1'] —
Thou callest me to a back-reckoning for the very sins of my youth,
and dost now cause me to feel the smart of them.

27. "Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest nar
rowly upon all my paths ; thou settest a print upon the heels of
my feet."] — Thou shuttest me in sure and close with these strong
afflictions, so as I cannot stir out of thy hand : thou dost strictly
observe all my carriage ; and, as if thou hadst set some soft mortar
or clay under my feet, to take the impression of my steps, so hast
thou curiously noted all my ways.

28. "And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth."] — Alas, Lord, if
I look to the condition of man in general, what a poor vain thing ho
is ! for behold he consumeth away as a thing that is already rotten.

XIV. ii. "As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood de-
cayeth and drieth up."] — As waters, that, after some exundation
of the sea or some great river, are left, upon the reflux thereof,
behind the rest upon the plain, which cannot return or continue,
but dry up and evaporate ; such is man.

14. "All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my
change come."] — All the days of my appointed time upon earth
will I patiently wait for that day wherein my God shall change
this my mortal condition for immortality : that so I may be ready
for the happy day of my dissolution.

17. "My transgressions are sealed up in a bag."] — Thou dost
not let go any of my transgressions, but hast made sure work
with them, and hast packed and sealed them up, that they may
be forthcoming for my present punishment.

18. "And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and
the rock is removed out of his place."] — Certainly, if the hugest
and strongest mountains do moulder away and come to nothing ;
if the very hardest rocks be, through the powerful hand of God,
removed out of their places :

1 9. " The waters wear the stones : thou Avashcst away the things

154 PARAPHRASE UPON

which grow out of the dust of the earth ; and thoti destroyest the
hope of man.1'1] — If the very stones be worn with water falling
upon them ; and deluges bear down any thing that is fastened in
the earth, &c. ; how much less shall weak and frail man make ac
count to continue upon the face of the earth !

21. "His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and
they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not."] — When he is
now in the agony of death, striving with those his last pangs, he
little regards what honour his son is newly come unto, or what
shame he hath incurred.

22. "But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul
within him shall mourn."] — But his flesh upon him is in extremity
of pain, which takes up all his thoughts and senses ; and his soul
within him mourns for the present violence of his torment, and
for the expectation or fear of the future.

XV. 2. " Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his
belly with the east wind?"] — Is it for a wise man, under a pre
tence of knowledge, to speak vain words, and to have his heart
filled with unprofitable and harmful imaginations ?

4. "Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before
God."] — I do now see that thou hast cast off the fear of God, and
art not careful and devout to call upon God in thy tribulation ;
yea, in all kind of inferred denial of the providence of God, thou
seemest to discourage others from calling upon him.

15. "Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints."] See chap,
iv. 1 8.

20. " The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and
the number of his years is hidden to the oppressor."] — The great
tyrants of the world, however they may seem to flourish, yet have
many secret girds and gripes of conscience, and are continually
tormented within themselves ; and yet, besides, they little know
how long they shall be allowed to live upon earth ; God keeps
the stint of their life secret from them.

26. " He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick
bosses of his buckler."] — He maketh violent and presumptuous
opposition to God, as if he could grapple with and overcome the
Almighty, and fearlessly runs upon the most eminent judgments
of God.

27. " Because he covereth his face with fatness."] — Because he
lives at ease, and prospers in all his designs, so as, through too
much pampering, his cheeks are covered with fatness.

JOB XV. 27.— XVI. 8. 155

28. "And he dwelleth in desolate cities," &c.]— And ho is
able through his power to raise sumptuous buildings in those
places which others have forsaken as barren and unhabitable.

29. " He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,
neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth."]—
Yet for all this, though he can for a glory do these great matters,
this wealth of his shall not continue long, neither shall this his
flourishing estate hold any long while upon the earth.

30. " He shall not depart out of darkness ; the flame shall dry
up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go
away."] — He shall irrecoverably lie under those sad and remedi
less calamities which are cast upon him ; and if any hopes of com
fort do begin to look forth, God shall presently scorch and defeat
them by the flames of his displeasure, and shall utterly confound
him by his just judgments.

31. "Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity."] — Let not
the man therefore that hath been heretofore carried away with
the vain confidence in these earthly things, suffer himself to be so
deceived any more.

32. "It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch
shall not be green."] — That recompense of his shall be so ac
complished, that he shall be cut off before his natural period ; and
his endeavours shall be blasted at their first putting forth, neither
shall ever come to any perfection.

33. "He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and
shall cast off his flower as the olive."] —He shall be as a vine
whose grape is perished in the very bud ; and as an olive whose
flower is cast off at the first putting forth ; so as his hopes shall
never attain to any maturity.

35. "Their belly prepareth deceit."] — Their secret thoughts
do but in the event deceive themselves.

XVI. 3. Shall vain words have an end? or what craboldeneth
thee that thou thus answerest ?"] — When wilt thou have made
an end of these vain speeches ? or what hath moved thee to make
so uncharitable a reply to my words ?

7. "But now he hath made me weary : thou hast made deso
late all my company."] — But now God hath loaded me with sor
row, till I am even weary of bearing it ; yea thou, 0 Lord, hast
put a distraction betwixt my family, my friends, and myself; and
hast made us all miserable.

8. "Thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness

156 PARAPHRASE UPON

against me."1] — The wrinkles that are suddenly grown in my face
are a sufficient witness of my extreme suffering.

9. " He teareth me with his teeth, who hateth me," &c.] — Mine
enemy, who beareth deadly hatred against me, hath now his full
scope of malice upon me, and in his cruelty insulteth over me at
pleasure.

13. "He cleaveth my reins asunder; he poureth out my gall
upon the ground/'] — His wrath reacheth to my inmost parts,
even to my reins and gall, and leaveth no part of me free from
his tormenting hand.

15. " And denied my horn in the dust.""] — I have laid down
all mine honour in the dust, and have justly humbled myself in
the very height of my glory by casting dust and ashes upon my
forlorn head.

XVII. 2. "Doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?"]
— Is not their unjust provocation continually in mine eye ; so as
I cannot but be a woful witness of their injury ?

3. "Lay down now, put me in surety with thee; who is he
that will strike hands with me?"] — I do much desire to have my
case thoroughly tried ; let me see then who will give security to
maintain the suit with me, who will agree to join issue with me
upon this point.

5. " He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of
his children shall fail."] — He that flatters his friend shall find
God plaguing him, both in himself and in his seed after him.

6. "He hath made me also a byword of the people ; and be
fore them 1 was a tabret."] — But for me, this is not my case ; I
am scorned rather : it hath pleased God to give me over to so
great misery, that I am become a byword to the world, and am
the matter of minstrelsy and sport to mine enemies.

12. " They change the night into the day : the light is short
because of darkness."] — My great afflictions change my night
into day ; causing me to pass over that time of darkness without
any rest, so as my thoughts are no less busy than in the day
time ; and so great is the darkness of my misery, that it eclipseth
my day, and makes it either short or none.

13. " If I wait, the grave is my house/1 &c.]— Tell not me of
any restoration of myself or of my estate ; all that I can wait
for is the grave ; that shall, I hope, receive and shelter me.

14. "I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: and to
the worms, Thou art my sister, and my mother."]— I am even

JOB XVI. 9.— XIX. 3. 157

already entering into my grave ; the corruption whereof hath al
ready seized upon me ; and 1 have yielded myself up unto it, and
am as it were incorporated in it.

1 6. " They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest
together is in the dust."] — Those hopes that you speak of shall
go down with me to the bottom of the grave, and shall rest with
me together in the dust.

XVIII. 4. " Ho teareth himself in his anger ; shall the earth
be forsaken for thee ? and shall the rock be removed out of his
place ?"] — Hear now, thou that talkcst of tearing thy flesh with
thy teeth for indignation and sorrow, what dost thou think that
thy clamour and complaint can prevail to alter God's just ad
ministration ; so as the earth should be forsaken because thou
speedest ill, and the rocks removed because thy misery con
tinues ?

8. "He is cast into a net by his own feet."] — He shall by his
own plots and devices run himself into inextricable perplexities
and miseries.

13. "The firstborn of death shall devour all his strength."] —
The most cruel and painful death shall make an end of all his
power and glory.

14. " And it shall bring him to the king of terrors."] — His con
fidence shall, at the last, lead him into the extremest of all terrors,
that can be conceived.

15. " It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his:
brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation."] — Yea, this
terror shall dwell and continue in his tabernacle, which, howsoever
he possesseth, yet his conscience tells him is not his own, since he
hath got it by extortion and violence ; and God shall reign down
brimstone upon it, as he did upon Sodom.

1 6. "His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his
branches be cut off."] — He shall be like unto a withered tree,
whose roots when they are once dried up below, the branches are
presently cut down for firewood.

20. " They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as
they that went before were affrighted."] — Posterity shall bo
astonished to hear of the severe judgment of God executed upon
him; and those that lived in the same age with him were affrighted
at the sight of that vengeance which was inflicted upon him.

XIX. 3. " These ten times have ye reproached me."]— We have
had ten several interlocutions, wherein you have most uncharitably

158 PARAPHRASE UPON

and cruelly reproached me; ye have cast many and frequent asper
sions of hypocrisy and wickedness upon mine innocence.

6. "Know now that God hath overthrown me."] — If I be (as
I am) most miserable ; alas ! you should have considered, that it
is God's hand that hath cast me down, which is both holy and
irresistible.

15. "My maids count me for a stranger."] — My very maid
servants look strangely and overlie upon me, as if I were not their
master : the very meanest of my family slight and neglect me.

17. "My breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated her
for the children's sake of mine own body."] — My wife, as she was
ready to add unto my trial by her ill counsel, so now, she keeps aloof
from me, and denies me the comfort and aid of her tendance in
this extremity, though I intreated and importuned her, even by
the remembrance of those children which she had borne from my
loins, which were the dear pledges of our conjugal love.

20. " And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth."] — I have
nothing that I can call skin, about me, but only that, which is of
my gums ; for the rest, the flesh hath shrunk from the skin, and
the skin is gone into corruption.

22. "Why do ye persecute me as God?"] — If it hath pleased
God to afflict me, will ye afflict me too ? He knoweth upon what
holy and just reasons he proceedeth with his creatures ; it is not
for you to arrogate this to yourselves j let it be enough therefore
that God's hand is upon me, though yours be not.

23. "O that my words were now written! 0 that they were
printed in a book," &c.] — I am now to speak a sentence so me
morable, that I could desire it should be recorded to all posterity
for ever.

25. "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he
shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:"] — However I am
judged by you, yet this is my comfort, that I know I have a Judge
and gracious Redeemer to come, who lives eternally when ye shall
be gone to dust, and shall one day come down to judge the quick
and the dead, and shall in that last day of our general account
present himself here upon earth to the eyes of all flesh :

26. "And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet
in my flesh shall I see God:"]— And though this skin, and this
body of mine, shall now soon go to corruption and dust ; yet in
this very flesh of mine, raised up glorious by his Divine power, I
shall see my God and Saviour ;

JOB XIX. 6.— XX. 24. 159

27. " Whom I shall see myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and
not another."] — I shall see him with these mine own eyes, and not
with any others for me : I shall sec and receive him as my just
and gracious Deliverer ; both from those powers of death, and all
these false calumniations which ye now cast upon me.

28. " But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root
of the matter is found in me ?"] — But ye should rather say ; Alas,
why do we persecute this distressed man any more, seeing we
find, if we look to the very root and bottom of our quarrel, that
he is upright, and innocent of those things whereof we have ac
cused him.

XX. 10. "His children shall seek to please the poor, and his
hands shall restore their goods."] — His children shall be glad to
make restitution to the poor, and to stop their clamorous mouths
with a late satisfaction , yea, perhaps himself, with his own hands,
shall give back his extorted goods.

ii. "His bones are full of the sins of his youth/'] — He
shall, in his old decrepit age, feel the smart of the sins of his
lawless youth ; they shall stick by him when he hath forgotten
them, &c.

14. " Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps
within him."] — Howsoever he have taken great pleasure in his
sins, and in the very act of them they have gone down sweet ;
yet, in the end, he shall find them painful, yea as deadly as the
venom of asps.

1 7. " He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of
honey and butter."] — Howsoever he hath promised himself great
contentment and felicity in his lawless courses, yet he shall find
himself utterly disappointed ; his hopes shall fail him, and leave
him quite destitute of all comforts.

21. " There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no
man look for his goods."] — He shall not have so much as meat
left to his mouth ; much less shall there be aught for other men
to hope for after him.

22. " Every hand of the wicked (or troublesome) shall come
upon him."] — Every hand of those whom he hath cruelly spoiled
shall be upon him ; each of them shall vex him, whether with suits
or violence to recover his own.

24. " He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel
shall strike him through."] — When he desires and hopes to avoid
a lesser danger, he shall fall into a greater.

160 PARAPHRASE UPON

26. "A fire unblown shall consume him."] — A fire, not kindled
by man, but sent down from heaven in the just judgment of God,
shall consume him, as thou, 0 Job, hast not long since had lament
able proof.

XXL 4. " Is my complaint to man ? and if it were so, why
should not my spirit be troubled?"]— If I had only to do with
man in this my misery, and had no other to make my complaint
unto, I had just reason to be utterly dejected ; but now I have a
God to make my moan unto.

6. " Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh
hold on my flesh."] — When I bethink myself of my own grievous
calamity, and, on the contrary side, of the great and apparent
prosperity of wicked men, I am so vexed and disquieted with the
consideration hereof, that my very flesh trembleth.

1 6. " Lo, their good is not in their hand : the counsel of the
wicked is far from me."] — Yet for all that the prosperity of the
wicked is not in their own hands to continue at pleasure : no, they
are in the power of that just God, who can crush them when he
thinks good; and therefore far be it from me, notwithstanding
all their outward peace and glory, to yield unto the ways of
wickedness.

19. " God layeth up his iniquity for his children."] — God re-
serveth the outward punishment of his iniquity to be, besides his
own person, inflicted upon his children after him.

24. " His breasts (or pails) are full of milk, and his bones are
moistened with marrow."] — The udders of his cattle and his pails
are full of milk ; and his bones are strong, and his flesh firm and
succulent ; so as both his outward estate and his body do exceed
ingly prosper and flourish.

28. " For ye say, Where is the house of the prince ? and where
are the dwelling places of the wicked ?"] — Ye say in a secret
scorn ; Where is now the house of this great man that hath borne
himself as a prince amongst his neighbours ; or what is become of
this wicked man's habitation ? He pretended godliness, but this
very desolation shows what he was. •

31. "Who shall declare his way to his face ? or who shall re
pay him what he hath done?"] — He is so great and imperious,
that no man dares reprove him for his faults, or offer to punish
him for his injuries done.

33. " The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every
man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him."]

JOB XX. 26.— XXIII. 6. 161

— He shall be glad to rest in the grave : and, by the law of nature,
every man shall follow after him in his own time to that common
receptacle of all flesh ; as there are also innumerable gone thither
before him.

XXII. 8. " The mighty man, he had the earth."] — Thou,
through thy covetousness and pride, didst engross the earth to
thyself.

u. "Abundance of water covers thee."] — Affliction, like a vio
lent stream, bears thee over, and covers thee, as drowning in the
bottom of it.

15. "Hast thou not marked the old way which wicked men
have trodden?"] — Hast thou not observed the course that God
hath of old wont to take with the wicked ?

20. " Whereas our substance is not cut down, but the remnant
of them the fire eonsumeth."] — This is the lot of wicked men ;
whereas we, that are righteous and godly, speed otherwise ; our
substance is both continued and multiplied ; but as for them, that
which remains of their riches, together with their persons, shall
be consumed with the fire of God's displeasure.

29. " When men are cast down, then shalt thou say, There is a
lifting up ; and he shall save the humble person."] — When thou
seest good men cast down, then shalt thou, by the strength of thy
faith, say, There shall be an exaltation for these men ; and God
will find a time to deliver and honour the humble person.

30. " He shall deliver the island of the innocent : and it is de
livered by the pureness of thine hands."] — He shall deliver a whole
island for the sake of one innocent and righteous man ; and if thou
wert he, the pureness of thy hands should obtain this favour from
him, that for his respect to thee he would spare many.

XXIII. 2. " Even to-day is my complaint bitter : my stroke is
heavier than my groaning."] — Even still I have every day more
cause than other to complain of my great affliction ; and the
stroke that I feel from God is more heavy than my groanings
can express.

3. " Oh that I knew where I might find him ! that I might
come even to his seat !"] — O that I knew where and how I might
meet with God ; that I might lay open my estate before him, and
in an humble manner argue the case of my suffering with him !

6. " Will he plead against me with his great power ? !STo ; but
he would put strength in me."] — I know he is gracious: he would
not stand either upon his rigour or his power with me ; but would

BP. HALL, VOL. III. M

PARAPHRASE UPON

mercifully sustain me, and give me courage and ability to stand
out in the maintenance of my sincerity before him.

7. "There the righteous might dispute with him ; so should I
be delivered for ever from my judge."] — Upon these terms, a man
of upright heart might hold a lowly contestation with him ; which
once done, being absolved by his most just sentence, I should be
delivered for ever from the slanders and condemnations of my un
just censurers.

8,9. "Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and back
ward, but I cannot perceive him : on the left hand," &c.] — But,
alas ! I know not how to come to have speech with the Almighty :
though he be everywhere, yet he doth not in any one place or
way manifest himself, so as to admit any plea of mine ; in vain
therefore shall I hope to argue my cause with him.

[3. " But he is in one mind, and who can turn him ?"] — But,
O vain man that I am, how should I hope to alter the determina
tions of that wise and powerful God ! What he hath decreed must
be ; and who can change his purposes ?

14. "And many such things are with him."] — Many such
things, as these his proceedings with me, doth he, in his great and
unlimited power and unsearchable wisdom, bring to pass ; whereof
we can give no reason or judgment.

17. "Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither
hath he covered the darkness from my face."] — I am astonished
at the hand of the Almighty, for that I am still upheld by his
power in these extremities, and not cut off by death before this
darkness of sorrow and misery overwhelmed me ; neither yet
hath he restrained these intolerable evils from seizing upon me,
but hath caused me to feel them, and not to be swallowed up by
them.

XXIV. i. " Why, seeing the times are not hidden from the AU
mighty, do they that know him not see his days?""] — It is good
reason we should attribute so much to the most wise providence
of the Almighty, that he knows and hath determined of the fittest
times for his own actions ; but why will men be so presumptuous,
as (though they know him not, yet) to foresee, and foreset the
days and times for his judgments?

2. "Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away
flocks."] — There are wicked men that give themselves to all vio
lent and licentious outrages of removing of landmarks, driving
away the flocks and herds of their neio-hbours.

JOB XX11I. 7.— XXIV. 23. 163

5. " Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their
work."] — They run as eagerly after their spoil and rapine as the
wild ass in the desert runs after his prey.

6. " They reap every one his corn in the field : and they gather
the vintage of the wicked."] — They reap every one his share of
corn in another man's field ; and gather that vintage which their
cruel oppression hath forced to be theirs.

8. " They are met with the showers of the mountains, and em
brace the rock for want of a shelter."] — So as their naked bodies
are exposed to the showers that fall from the mountains ; and are
fain to seek shelter of the rock, to keep them from the violence of
the weather.

n." Which make oil within their walls, and tread their wine
presses, yet suffer thirst."] — The poor and painful man toils hard
for these oppressors, to scruze out their oil and wine within their
own walls, and is forced to thirst the while ; being by their cruelty
abridged of his wages and livelihood, and not suffered so much as
to taste of his own labours.

13. " They are of those that rebel against the light."] — They
are of those that hate the light, which reproves their wicked deeds,
and lays them open to the view of the world.

1 8. "He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed upon
earth : he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards."] — Thus doth
the evil man ; but shall he prosper in his mischief? No ; God shall
soon be avenged of him : he shall pass away swiftly, even as an
heady current of waters ; and, while he continues here, he enjoys
that which he hath with a curse : his lot shall be barrenness, so
as he shall not so much as look towards the way of the vineyards ;
he shall have no hope of receiving the benefit of his seasonable
culture of the earth.

19. "Drought and heat consume the snow waters; so doth the
grave those which have sinned."] — As the moisture of the snow,
which is more light and airy, is dried up by the heat of the sun
beams, so are the sinners suddenly consumed by that death and
destruction which God sends upon them.

23. " Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he
resteth ; yet his eyes are upon their ways."] — Though this
wicked man seem to pass his time in much security and confi
dence, yet the eyes of God are so upon his ways, as that he ob
serves him, to take his advantages against him, and to fit him with
nidgments.

M 2

164 I PARAPHRASE UPON

XXV. 2. " Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace
in his high places."] — He is an awful God, that hath the absolute
dominion over all the world : he ordereth the very heavens so,
that there is a perfect harmony in all the (seemingly contrary)
motions thereof; and contriveth all things so, that they agree to
glorify him.

3. "Is there any number of their armies? and upon whom
doth not his light arise ?"] — How innumerabte troops of glorious
angels hath he there above, and how infinite armies of his crea
tures to execute his will upon all occasions ! and how gracious is
he in sending forth his light into all the corners of the earth ;
and how wise in searching all the secrets of human actions and
counssls !

XXVI. 2. " How hast thou helped him that is without power ?"
&c.] — Ywis he had not had power enough to right himself
without thee ; foolish man ! that pleadest for God, as if he had
need of thy patronage.

4. " Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the
inhabitants thereof."] — What dost thou tell me of a Provi
dence ordering those heavenly bodies and motions ? I know all
this, and more ; and tell thee again, that the same Providence
reach eth to all those obscure creatures which are formed under
the waters and under the earth ; so as they have not their being
and continuance but from him.

6. " Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no cover
ing."] — Yea, the very lowest part of the earth lies naked and
open to his all-seeing eyes : he knows the places and ways and
means of the dissolution of all the creatures which he hath made.

7. "He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and
hangeth the earth upon nothing."] — He hath spread out this
glorious hemisphere of the heavens upon the void and empty
space of the light and thin air ; and hangeth the great ball of the
earth in the midst of heaven, without any prop or foundation.

9. " He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth
his cloud upon it."] — He hideth the face of heaven, which is his
throne, from our sight, by spreading his thick clouds betwixt it
and us.

n." The pillars of the heaven tremble and are astonished at
his reproof."] — The high mountains, upon which the heaven
seems to rest as so many pillars, tremble and shake with his
earthquakes.

JOB XXV. 2.— XXVIII. 7.

13. "His hand hath formed the crooked serpent."] His hand

hath made the huge and mighty whale in the waters, and the
monstrous and dreadful serpent on the land.

XXVII. 2. "As God liveth, who hath taken away my judg
ment; who hath vexed my soul."] — As God liveth, who hath not
yet given any outward and sensible signification that he hath
taken notice of my cause, to clear and avenge me ; but, contra-
rily, hath laid many sore afflictions upon me.

XXVIII. i. " Surely there is a vein for silver, and a place for
gold ivhere they fine it."] — However you have pleased to pass
your censure concerning the proceedings of God, certainly his
ways and his wisdom are unsearchable : there is a certain and
determinate place for these earthly treasures, where they may be
found out ; there is a vein for silver and a place for gold.

2. ft Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of
the stone."] — And so it is with the coarser metals : iron is found
in the earth ; and brass is molten out of the ore, which is the
rude matter of it.

3. "He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all per
fection : the stones of darkness, and shadow of death.1'1] — He set
teth a stint or limit to the most obscure places of the earth, and
by the industry of man finds them out ; and works out of them
the purity and perfection of the best metals and mines ; and
fetchcth thence those precious or useful stones which lay hid in
darkness and utter obscurity.

4. " The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant ; even the
waters forgotten of the foot : they are dried up, they are gone
away from men."] — He disposeth of the waters also at his plea
sure ; so as one while the flood breaketh out by a sudden inun
dation, and soon after is so dried up, that the passenger's foot
takes not notice that ever any water was there.

5. "As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is
turned up fire."] — As for the earth, it yields bread corn in the
surface of it, and the bowels of it yield combustible matter for the
use of man.

6. " The stones of it are the places of sapphires : and it hath
dust of gold."]— Among the quarries of the earth are sapphires
and other precious stones found and digged up ; and the ore of
gold is also had amongst the dust and mould thereof.

7. " There is a path which no fowl knowcth," &c.]— There arc

166 PARAPHRASE UPON

indeed secret places of the earth which never any creature came
to the sight of, &c.

1 2. " But where shall wisdom he found?" &c.] — But in all these
regions of the clouds, of the earth, of the waters, where shall
wisdom be found?

13. "Neither is it found in the land of the living."] — Neither
is it to be found amongst living men ; since it is not an earthly,
but an heavenly thing.

25. "To make weights for the winds."] — However the wind is
the most light of all creatures, and uncapable of any ponderation,
yet he who made it can make weights wherein to poise it.

XXIX. 3. " When his candle shined upon my head/1 &c.] —
When the light of his countenance shone graciously upon me, and
gave me comfort and success in all my actions.

6. " When I washed my steps with butter."] — When I had such
abundance of all these outward things, that, in the plenty of my
milk, I might have washed and suppled my feet with butter, &c.

1 8. " Then I said, I shall die in my nest."] — Then did I please
myself in the confidence of my continuing happiness, and durst
boldly resolve, I shall die in peace and fulness of days in my own
house.

24. "If^ laughed on them, they believed it not ; and the light
of my countenance they did not cast down."] — If by my smiles I
gave intimation that I gave not assent to any report, it was pre
sently distrusted by the hearers ; or, if I sported with them, they
had such an awful opinion of my gravity, that they did not think
me to be in jest ; neither did they forbear to give me all due re
verence, and to hold their great respects to me.

XXX. i. "Whose fathers I would have disdained to have set
with the dogs of my flock."] — Whose fathers I would have dis
dained to have made the keepers of those dogs which tended upon
my flocks.

2. " Whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in
whom old age was perished?"] — For what use could I have made
of them, which had wholly lost their time, and lived idly and un-
profitably ?

n. "Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they
have also let loose the bridle before me."] — Because God hath
bereaved me of that power and honour which I formerly enjoyed,
therefore they let loose the reins of their obedience and respects
to me.

JOB XXVIII. J 2.— XXXI. 33. 167

18. " By the great force of my disease is my garment changed :
it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat."] — By the running
of my sores, my garment is all stained with purulent matter, and
requires a frequent change ; yea, it cleaveth so close unto my
body, by the means of this loathsome moisture, as* the collar of
my coat is straitened to my neck.

22. " Thou liftest me up to the wind," &c.] — Thou tossest me
up with thy judgments, as dust or chaff is blown up with the wind.

29. " I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.""] —
My pain forceth me to so lamentable cries and emulations, that I
might seem fit to be consorted with dragons and owls, in some
horrible desert, whose howlings and shrickings are wont to be
held most mournful and ominous.

XXXI. i, 2. " I made a covenant, &c. For what portion of
God is there from above," &c.] — For if I had suffered my eyes
and my heart to rove after these unlawful lusts, what could I have
looked for at the hand of God, but due vengeance ?

10. "Then let my wife grind unto another," &c.J — Then let
my wife become false to my bed, and repay my sin with the like
adultery : let me be plagued, as I deserve, in my own kind.

i i. "Yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges."]—-
This had been a capital offence, worthy to be punished by the
sword of authority.

21. " If I have lifted up niy hand against the fatherless, when
I saw my help in the gate."] — If I have used my power injuriously
against the fatherless, when I saw that my sentence would have
been seconded, and would have carried it, upon the bench.

26—28. " If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon
walking in brightness : and my heart hath been secretly enticed,
or my mouth hath kissed my hand : this also were an ini
quity," &c.] — If, when I have beheld thy glorious creatures, the
sun and the moon, 1 have given way to any idolatrous conceits,
and have ascribed divine honour unto them, as my heathen neigh
bours do ; this were indeed an heinous and capital wickedness.

3.1. "If the men of my tabernacle said not, 0 that we had of
his flesh ! we cannot be satisfied."] —If the people of my house
were not so taken up with the offices and employments of my hos
pitality to others, that they had no leisure to feed themselves, and
therefore complained for want of that flesh which they dressed
for others.

33. "If I have covered my transgressions as Adam."] — If 1

168 PARAPHRASE UPON

have made shifts and excuses to hide or diminish my offence, as
the manner of men is, who do herein imitate our first father Adam,
and from him have derived this corruption.

34. "Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of
families terrify me?"]— Did I forbear to reprove or oppose any
sin,, because it was backed by a multitude of offenders ? or, if I
suffered myself to be disheartened by the fear of that contempt
which might fall upon me from large combinations and families.

35. " Oh that one would hear me ! behold, my desire is, that
the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had
written a book."] — 0, that I had a fair and equal hearing in this
cause of mine ! Yea, I could presume so far as to wish that the
Almighty himself would be pleased to undertake this business :
and that my trial might be the more certain, 0 that my adver
saries would put in their bill of complaint in writing against me !

36. " Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as
a crown to me."] — Surely I would much rejoice and triumph in
that indictment ; and would account it the greatest honour that
could be done me.

37. "I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a
prince would I go near unto him."] — 1 would help such a one
with such informations against myself as he should never be able
to find out ; and when I have done, I would encounter him boldly
and courageously, as some warlike prince would come into the
field against a weak enemy.

XXXII. 7. " I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years
should teach wisdom."] — I said, as in good manners I aught,
Those that are ancient and full of days should speak, and those
that had many years' experience should be most able to teach
wisdom to their younger.

8. " But there is a spirit in man."] — But I see, all is not in age :
there is a spirit of God, which, breathing where it listeth, maketh
a difference in man.

13. "Lest ye should say, We have found out wisdom: God
thrusteth him down, not man."] — Do not think, or say, that you
have by your great wisdom convinced Job upon this ground that
God hath afflicted him, not man ; and God, being just, punishes
none but a sinner ; therefore Job is an hypocrite : I shall go an
other way to work with him.

22. "For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my
Maker would soon take me away."] — I dare not soothe up and

JOB XXXI. 34.— XXXIV. 14, 15. 169

flatter any man in a false conceit : if I should so do, I know God
would be sure to be speedily avenged of me.

XXXIII. 14. " For God speaketh once, yea twice, but man
perceiveth it not."] — Many times and divers ways doth God so
licit and admonish men, yet, such is the dulness and security of
their hearts, that they either do not or will not hear and under
stand him.

1 6, 17. "Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their
instructions, that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and
hide pride from man."] — Then, and by these means, he causeth
men to hear, and imprinteth in their heart his instructions ; that
he may prevail with man to withdraw him from those evil courses
and resolutions which he hath undertaken ; and that he may con
vince him of his proud and insolent conceits which he hath har
boured in himself.

23, 24. " If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one
among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness ; then he
is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to
the pit : I have found a ransom."] — When a man is thus soundly
humbled, if a faithful messenger and minister of God, which is not
easy and common to be found, shall show that man his true
estate, both in the truth of his repentance and in the safety of his
faithful dependence upon his allsufficient Redeemer ; then will God
be gracious to that man, and will administer seasonable comforts
to his soul, and say, This man shall be delivered from hell; I
have found perfect and absolute atonement and ransom for him,
in the blood of that Saviour in whom he hath believed.

XXXIV. 6. " Should I lie against my right ? my wound is in
curable without my transgression."] — Should I belie myself in
my own cause, so as to say, I have received hard measure from
God without any desert of mine; I am plagued, and have not
offended ?

7. " What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorn like water?"]
— There is no man, that pretends to be so wise and holy as Job,
that would thus expose himself to the scorn of the world in his
insolent challenges, or would thus turn off the grave admonitions
of his friends with scorn and contempt.

14, 15. " If he set his heart upon man, ^/>he gather unto him
self his spirit and his breath; all flesh shall perish."]— If God
would resolve to deal with man according to his absolute power ;

170 PARAPHRASE UPON

if he should call back that life and soul which he hath given him ;
there were no abiding ; all flesh should perish at once.

17. "Shall he that hateth right govern?" &c.] — Is it fit for
thee, who fondly censurest the just proceedings of God, to over
rule thy Maker ?

20. " In a moment shall they die, and the people shall be trou
bled at midnight."] — He shall fetch away the great commanders
of the earth in a time when it is least expected ; even in the deep
est of security shall he cause astonishment and tumult in the death
of the mighty ones.

23. " That he should enter into judgment with God."] — That
man should hereupon have any just cause of contestation with God,
or any ground of cavil against him.

30. " That the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be en
snared."] — Yea, not only doth God execute his judgments upon
the vulgar people, but on the great potentates of the earth ; so as
he strikes wicked tyrants with his plagues, lest the people should
be too much oppressed with their injustice.

33. " Should it be according to thy mind ? he will recompense
it, whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose ; and not I."] —
Dost thou think it meet that God should proceed in his judgments
according to thy conceits ? If thou and I should determine what
were fit for him to do, he will take what course he thinks best,
whether thou or I like it or dislike it.

XXXV. 6. " If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him ? or
t/"thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?"] —
If thou sinnest, what dost thou hurt him ? Is his holiness, justice,
power ever the less because thou hast transgressed? Is aught
diminished from his essence by thine offence ?

i o. ' ' But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth
songs in the night?"] — Many make formal flourishes, but none
doth heartily acknowledge the powerful and just hand of that God
who gives due and seasonable comfort to the soul in the deepest
and darkest night of our sorrows.

1 2. " Therefore they cry, but none heareth them, because of
the pride of evil men.""] — Therefore they cry out, and complain of
the pride and oppressions of wicked men, but God giveth them no
answer by reason of their impatience and unbelief.

14. "Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judg
ment is before him; therefore trust thou in him."] — Although

JOB XXXIV. 17.— XXXVII. n. 171

thou sayest that God gives thee no assurance of his presence by
any sensible demonstration, yet certainly he will be sure to execute
true (though secret) judgment in all the cases of men ; and there
fore do thou acknowledge him and trust in him.

15. " But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his
anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity."] — But now,
because thou dost not approve thyself to him as thou oughtest,
therefore he hath afflicted thee in his anger ; yet Job doth not
consider that his suffering is not in such extremity as his sin hath
deserved.

XXXVI. 13. " They cry not when he bindeth them/1]— When
he afflicteth them they do not humble themselves under the hand
of God and repent them of their sins.

20. " Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their
place."] — Do not thou wish for night, as thinking that that silent
and quiet time might give thee ease from thy thoughts, while thou
hast to do with a God that can in an instant cut off whole nations,
much more thee, who art one weak and frail man.

21. " For this hast thou rather chosen than affliction.""] — Thou
hast rather chosen to tax the proceedings of God in thy weak im
patience than meekly to suffer his affliction.

30. " Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, and covereth the
bottom of the sea."] — Behold, when the heaven is overcast with
clouds, he sendeth forth his bright beams, and enlighteneth and
cheereth the face thereof; and again sendeth such gloomy and
dark clouds as that the blackness and obscurity thereof shadeth
even to the bottom of the sea.

33. " The noise thereof showeth concerning it, the cattle also
concerning the vapour."'] — The noise of thunder which is in the
cloud showeth and prcsageth the rain which will pour down from
it, and the very cattle have a kind of notice, and give a certain in
timation by signs and tokens of the falling of that moist vapour.

XXXVII. 2. "Hear attentively the noise of his voice."]—
While we are now speaking, hear how dreadfully the noise of his
thunder sounds in the clouds, &c.

9. " Out of the south cometh the whirlwind : and cold out of
the north."] — Out of those hidden chambers of his, which are the
southern coasts, the strong winds arise, and the cold winds come
from the north.

ii. "By watering he wearieth the thick cloud."]— He spends
out all the moisture of the thick cloud in watering the earth.

172 PARAPHRASE UPON

13. " He causeth them to come, whether for correction, or for
his land, or for mercy."] — He sendeth abundance of rain, whether
for the punishment of men, or for the fruitening of the earth, or
for the refreshing of men.

17. " How thy garments are warm, when he quieteth the earth
by the south wind."} — How it comes about that the air is so hot
as that thou canst not abide thy clothes on, when in a calm sea
son the south sun shines upon thee, and the warm southern winds
blow in thy face.

1 8. " Which is strong, and as a molten looking-glass."] —
Which seems unto us so firm and solid, as if it were a looking-
glass of some strong polished metal.

19. " We cannot order our speech by reason of darkness."] —
We know not how to order or dispose our speeches to him,
by reason of that gross darkness of ignorance wherewith we are
inwrapped.

20. " If a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up."] — If a
man will be opposing him in his speech, and questioning his jus
tice, surely he shall be confounded.

21. 22. " And now men see not the bright light which is in the
clouds; but the wind passeth, and cleanseth them. Fair weather
cometh out of the north : with God is terrible majesty."] — If men
be not able with their weak eyes to behold the brightness of the
sun, which shineth in the lightsome clouds when the wind passeth
through and disperseth them, and when the air is cleared by the
north winds, how shall they be able to look God in the face, and
to hold contestation with him whose majesty is terrible beyond
the powers of our apprehension ?

24. " He respecteth not any tJiat are wise in heart."] — The
best wisdom of men is but foolishness to him : he makes no reckon
ing therefore of that vain wisdom with the conceit whereof men
are wont to please themselves.

XXXVIII. 2. " Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words
without knowledge?"] — Who is this that ignorantly casts unjust
aspersions upon the most wise and holy decrees and proceedings
of the Almighty ?

7. " When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons
of God shouted for joy."] — When the glorious stars in their first
creation did in their kind celebrate the praises of their Maker ;
and the angels of God, created by that omnipotent word of his,
testified their joy and thankfulness to the God that made them such.

JOB XXXVII. 13.— XXXIX. 19. 173

9, 10. " When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and the
thick darkness as the swaddling-band for it, and brake up (or, set)
my decreed place/']— Whose power when he had brought forth
the sea as a new-born infant wrapped it about with clouds, as with
clouts and swaddling-bands ; and set upon it my everlasting de
cree, for the bounds and motion thereof.

13. " That the wicked might be shaken out of it."]— That evil
doers, who hate the light of the day, might be affrighted, by the
rising of it, from their wicked projects.

14. " It is turned as clay to the seal ; and they stand as a gar
ment."] — The earth is by the coming of the light changed into
divers forms, and differs upon the impression thereof as wax or
clay doth at the stamping of a new seal, so as it seems quite other
than it was ; and men, especially guilty malefactors, are shifted by
the breaking forth of the light, like to so many several garments.

22, 23. " Treasures of snow, &c. which I have reserved against
the time of trouble?"] — Didst thou ever enter into that my store
house of meteors, which I have decreed to bring forth upon all
occasions of my judgments upon men ?

24. " By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the
east wind upon the earth ?"] — Dost thou know how the lightning
comes to break forth of the cloud; and how that vapour there
included doth with great violence scatter a blustering wind upon
the earth ?

31." Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, &c.
Orion?" &c.] See ch. ix. 9. — Canst thou alter the seasons of the
year, or cause a restraint of the spring, summer, autumn, &c.?

32. " Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season ? or canst
thou guide Arcturus with his sons?"] — Canst thou bring forth
those hidden stars of the south, or direct the northern constella
tions in their courses ?

33. " Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven ? and canst thou
set the dominion thereof in the earth?"] — Knowest thou what
laws God hath made for the motions and influences of the heaven,
and what power he hath given to their operations on the earth ?

XXXIX. i. "Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of
the rock bring forth?"] — Canst thou understand or dispose of
the conceptions and births of the wildest creatures ?

19. " Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?"]— Hast thou
enabled him to neigh so loudly and strongly as if it were the
rattling of thunder ?

174 PARAPHRASE UPON

24. " Neither believcth lie that it is the sound of the trumpet/"]
— Neither doth conceive any terror at all in the alarum to the
battle.

26. "And stretch her wings towards the south."] — Is it by thine
appointment and instinct that the hawk wasteth her nimble and
swift wings to fly into the warmer climates of the south ?

30. " Her young ones also suck up blood ; and where the slain
are, there is she."] — Whereas other fowls drink water, the young
eagle is wont (and who taught it him ?) to suck in the blood of his
prey; and where carcasses are, thither, by a strange sagacity of
nature, is drawn to resort.

XL. 15. "Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he
eateth grass as an ox."] — Look but upon two of my creatures;
the one on the land, the other in the water; both huge and mighty;
behold the elephant first, which I have formed and placed in thy
view, and made apt to thy use; which, though he be so vast that
his very stature is enough to terrify the beholder, yet I have
caused him to eat grass like the ox, and to feed on no prey but
these slight vegetables.

1 7. " He moveth his tail like a cedar : and the sinews of his
stones are wrapped together."] — In his lust, he moveth his ge
nerative part like to some cedar ; and the sinews of his stones are
wrapt together, like to the roots of those tall and strong trees.

24. " He taketh it with his eyes :" (or as the margin rather,
"Will any take him in his sight, or, bore his nose with a gin?)"]
— Will any man be able by open force to take him, while he sees
and is forewarned of the enterprise ? or can he be taken by the
nose, as a fish with an hook ? Is he not able to break through all
the dangers of a violent taking ?

XLI. i. " Canst thou draw up leviathan with an hook?"] — In
like manner, cast thine eye into the deep waters, and see there
the great whale that I have framed ; canst thou think to angle
for him, as for small fish ? &c.

7. " Canst thou fill his skin with barbed iron?"] — Canst thou
pierce his skin with barbed hooks ?

8. "Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no
more."] — If thou lay thy hand upon him to strike him thou shalt
have so much reason to feel the smart of this conflict that thou
shalt not meddle with him any more.

ii. " Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him?"'] —
Who hath done me any favour in helping me to make or govern

JOB XXXIX. 24.— XLII. n. 175

the world, or in furthering ray actions, that I may repay it unto
him?

13. "Who can discover the face of his garment?"] — Who is
able to turn over that skin, wherewith he is covered as with a
garment ?

1 8. " By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like
the eyelids of the morning."] — When he neeseth, he maketh, as it
were, a fire to break forth at his nostrils and eyes ; and when thou
beholdest his eyes, thou wouldest think thou sawest the sun rising
in the morning.

22. "And sorrow is turned into joy before him."] — And if
from any other creature there be occasion of trouble and vexation
offered to him, he takes pleasure therein, as that which he will
turn to his advantage and triumph.

25. "By reason of breakings they purify themselves/'] — Out
of the fear of his vehement and terrible motions, they are glad to
make their peace with God, that they may be ready for that dis
solution which is threatened unto them thereby.

32. " He maketh a path to shine after him ; one would think
the deep to be hoary."] — Where he moves in the sea, he causeth
a mention of his way in the waters ; leaving behind him a white
kind of foam on the face of the sea discernible from the rest of
the waves.

34. " He beholdeth all high things : he is a king over all the
children of pride."] — He doth, in the confidence of his great
strength, overlook all other living creatures, and exalt himself over
the proudest of them ; as thinking himself more strong and mighty
than they.

XLII. 9. "The LORD also accepted of Job."] — The Lord also
heard the prayer of Job that he made for his friends; and so
accepted of his person and his devotion, that he forgave their
offence upon his intercession.

10. "And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he
prayed for his friends.""] — And the Lord released that miserable
affliction under which Job was held bound ; when, out of his
meekness and charity, he was content to pray for those his perse
cuting friends.

i j . " Every man also brought him a piece of money, and every
one an earring of gold."] — They came to him ; and, by way of
gratulation brought him, each of them, a gift, a piece of coin
usual in those times, (stamped with a sheep or lamb.) and an earring
of gold.

176 PARAPHRASE UPON

15. "And their father gave them inheritance among their
brethren."] — Their father, as the reward and encouragement of
their virtues, gave them a possession of land, that they should be
coheirs of his estate and territories, as their brethren were, and
should share proportionally with them.

PSALMS.

I.i. " Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of
the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the
seat of the scornful."] — Blessedness is the thing we all drive at :
would ye then know who is a blessed and happy man ? It is he
that first refraineth himself from all evil : and whereas there are
three degrees of wicked men, ungodly in their thoughts, sinners
in their actions, and scorners in their words and carriage ; this
man holds aloof from them all ; not yielding to frame himself
either to the counsels of the ungodly, to continue in the way and
manner of life which is used by sinners, or to settle himself in a
resolution to join with the scornful enemies of grace and goodness.

2. " But his delight is in the law of the LORD ; and in his law
doth he meditate day and night."] — But, contrarily, instead of
these lewd courses and sinful pleasures, his delight is wholly placed
in the Lord his God, and, for his sake, in the word of that God ;
and wherewith his heart is so taken up, that he spendeth his
thoughts upon it day and night.

6. " For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous."] — For
the Lord takes special notice of the actions and events of godly
men : he graciously accepts of what they do, and wisely and mer
cifully ordereth the issues of all things to their good.

11. i . " Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a
vain thing?"] — What madness is this in the enemies of God and
of his Anointed, thus to conspire against that kingdom and govern
ment which he would have established in me as a type of the ever
lasting sovereignty of his Son, Christ ?

7. " I will declare the decree : Thou art my Son ; this day have
I begotten thee."] — That men may no longer pretend ignorance,
I will declare and publish the eternal decree of God, who hath
said concerning his Son Christ, whose type I bear, Thou art my
only Son ; I have from eternity begotten thee ; and now I do this
day proclaim thee to the world, as the everlasting King and Go
vernor thereof.

12. " Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish /ro?« the

JOB XLII. 15.— PSALMS VII. 7. 177

way."] — Give ye your true testimonies of your humble homage
and subjection to this eternal Son of God ; and of your meet obe
dience to me, whom he hath ordained to be a figure of that his
glorious government ; lest his anger be provoked against you by
your contempt, and so he should cut you off in the midst of your
designs.

IV. 2. " O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into
shame?" &c.] — O ye proud enemies, that pride yourselves in the
favour and countenance of Saul, how long will ye vainly endeavour
to disappoint that glory which. God hath by his prophet forcpro-
mised unto me ?

4. " Stand in awe, and sin not : commune with your own hearts
upon your bed, and be still."] — Be afraid of God's judgments,
and be reclaimed from your sins, and especially from your bloody
persecution of me ; deal seriously with your own hearts in secret,
betwixt God and them : retire yourselves purposely, for the more
opportunity of your deep meditations ; and bo confounded in
yourselves, turning your displeasure back upon your own wicked
hearts.

6. " T/wre be many that say, Who will show us any good?"] —
I know it is the common fashion of the world to look after out
ward prosperity ; and to measure happiness by the abundance of
these earthly things ; but for me, 0 Lord, I value thy favour above
all things whatsoever.

7. " Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time
that their corn and their wine increased."] — They do not so much
rejoice in their vintage and harvest, when it is most rich, season
able, abundant, as I do in the assurance of thy grace towards me.

V. 9. " Their throat is an open sepulchre."] — They have swal
lowed down many dear morsels of the estates and lives of the godly
and innocent ; and out of their throats have proceeded nothing but
words tending to the destruction of others.

O

VI. 5. "For in death there is no remembrance of thee."] —
When I am once dead, I can no more celebrate thy name amongst
the living, as I now do.

VII. 7. " So shall the congregation of the people praise thee :
for their sakes therefore return on high."] — 0 God, in delivering
me, thou shalt not only do good unto me, but this proof of thy
mercy shall draw all the people to a just admiration of thy good
ness ; for their sakes, therefore, ascend thou upon thy throne ot
judgment, and make thy grace conspicuous to all the world.

BP. HALL, VOL. III.

178 PARAPHRASE UPON

14. "Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived
mischief, and brought forth falsehood."] — It shall be with him as
with a woman that is mocked with a false and yet painful concep
tion : he hath conceived a mischievous plot against me : he tra
vaileth in bringing that sinful design to execution ; and when all
is done, he is delivered of nothing but a vain and false hope, which
vanishcth into wind and disappointment.

VIII. 2. " Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou
ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest
still the enemy and avenger."] — O God, thou needest no skilful
rhetoricians to set forth thy praise : even very new-born babes
and sucklings do sufficiently declare thy power, wisdom, and good
ness : whosoever shall but look upon them and see their miracu
lous formation and nourishment and insensible growth, shall see
enough to stop the mouths of all thine enemies ; how much more
when they come to age and discretion dost thou fetch praise and
glory to thyself from them ?

5. "For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels.""] —
Thou hast made man in his very creation, and the Son of man in
his voluntary exinanition of himself for our sake, a little lower
than the angels.

IX. 6. " 0 thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual
end : and thou hast destroyed cities ; their memorial is perished
with them."] — O thou enemy, thou hast now, I hope, done de
stroying; thou hast made an end of sacking and ruining our
cities ; there is no more work for thee further to do : and now,
when they have done their worst, themselves and their memorial
is utterly rooted out.

1 2. " When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth
them."] — When God calls men to a reckoning for their oppres
sions and cruelties, he then remembers the poor, and is just and
careful to right their wrongs.

X. 3. " For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and bless-
eth the covetous, whom God abhorreth."] — The wicked man fol
lows his unbridled lusts ; and boasts of his free and full content
ment that he finds in his evil ways, and magnifies those that are
earthly and carnal-minded, like himself; who, though they be ap
plauded by him, yet are abhorred of God.

5. "His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far
above out of his sight ; as for all his enemies, he puifeth at
them."]— His ways are ever offensive to God: thy judgments,

PSALMS VII. J4.— XIV. 4. 179

O God, are by him put far from his thoughts ; and for his ene
mies, in a confidence of his own strength, he maketh a mock of
them.

10. " He croucheth, and humblcth himself, that the poor may
fall by his strong ones."] — He glavereth, and speaks fair, and
carries himself courteously, to draw in the poor into his danger ;
and when he hath once got hold of them, he falls violently upon
them.

15. "Seek out his wickedness till thou find none."] — Do thou
search out, and punish, and restrain his wickedness, till there be
no more of it to bo found ; make a full end of his evil by thy
judgments.

XL 3. " If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous
do?"] — 0 God, they have undermined me in the very foundations
of my being and subsisting : how can I then hold out ? Let me be
never so upright and innocent, yet I must needs, for aught I can
do, fall under their violence.

4. "The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in
heaven."] — But howsoever such measure be offered me by men,
yet my comfort is, that I have a God who dwells above in the
glorious temple of heaven, who can and will redress my wrongs.

6. " Upon the wicked he shall rain snares ; fire and brimstone."]
— lie will, in his due time, execute most terrible and dreadful
judgments upon the wicked, such as he did upon Sodom and
Gomorrah : he shall rain down upon their heads fire and brim
stone, which shall surprise them suddenly, and ensnare them with
out possibility of escape.

XII. 8. " The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men
are exalted."] — It must needs be that wicked men should abound
everywhere, and bear them proudly in their lewd courses, when
the worst and most godless men are exalted and preferred to places
of honour and command, and magnified in their sins.

XIII. 3. •' Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death."]
— 0 Lord, do thou comfort me with the cheerful light of thy coun
tenance ; raise me up with a sweet sense of thy favour, lest I be
utterly disheartened, and die disconsolate.

XIV. i. " The fool hath said," &c.] Sec Psalm liii. r.

4. " Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat
up my people as they eat bread."] — What a strange madness is
this in wicked men, that they will not consider what vengeance
they pull upon themselves, while they do thus cruelly devour my

N 2

180 PARAPHRASE UPON

people, as they eat bread so greedily, so familiarly ; without fear

or remorse

5. " There were they in great fear: for God is in the gene
ration of the righteous."] — But how secure soever they now
seem, God hath a time wherein he shall confound them with fear
and astonishment, for that just God takes special charge of the
generation of the just, and shall surely plague their cruel per
secutors.

6. " Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD
is his refuge."] — Ye have scorned and made a mock of the holy
resolutions of the poor and godly man, in that he depended upon
the Lord as his refuge : and trusted not, as you do, to his own
devices and to the arm of flesh.

XV. i . " LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle ? who shall
dwell in thy holy hill?"] — O Lord, whom wilt thou admit as a
living member of thy true church upon earth, and as a glorious
citizen of thy heavenly Jerusalem above !

XVI. 2. "My goodness extendeth not to thee."] — O God, what
have I, or what can I do, that can confer any thing to thee ; since
thou art infinitely glorious and powerful, and I am not finite only,
but weak and miserable ?

4. " Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take
up their names into my lips."] — I will have nothing to do with
those idolatrous heathen, nor yet with their superstitious and
sinful rites : if they pollute themselves with the drink offerings of
blood, whether of men or other creatures, I abhor to partake with
them ; neither will I so much as make mention of the names of
their false gods.

6. "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I
have a goodly heritage."] — I cannot envy the greatness and pro
sperity of these wicked idolaters : no, God hath allotted a happy
portion unto me, in comparison of the best of them.

9. "My flesh also shall rest in hope."] — I will also lay down
this body of mine in the grave, in a certain hope and assurance of
my resurrection to immortality.

i o. " For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt thou
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.""] — For thou wilt not give
me utterly over to that corruption which shall seize on me in the
grave ; neither wilt let the body of thy holy servant to vanish
away in dust and rottenness ; but wilt one day raise it glorious ;
whereof I am assured by the virtue of my insition into that Christ

PSALMS XIV. 5.— XIX. 4. 181

whose sacred body thou wilt preserve from the least putrefaction
in the earth.

XVII. 10. "They are inclosed in their own fat."] — They are
fat and well liking ; pampering themselves with all the content
ments and pleasures that their heart can desire.

14. " From men (as in the margin] by thine hand, 0 LORD,
from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and
whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasures."] — Save thou me,
O Lord, by thy powerful hand from the cruelty of men, even from
worldly and bloodthirsty men ; which have set up their rest here
below, making no account of any other life after this, wherein to
receive the retribution of good or evil ; whom yet thou causest to
abound with the choicest of all temporal and outward blessings for
their further judgment

15. "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall
be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."] — But as for me, I do
no way envy this happiness of theirs, but rather am willingly con
tent to suffer affliction here, since I am assured I shall one day be
hold thy face in perfect beauty : when 1 shall awake out of my long
sleep in the grave, I shall be fully satisfied with thy glorious pre
sence; and, in the mean time, I shall comfortably hope to see thy
deliverance of me, in thy just vindication from mine enemies ; and
when thou raisest me out of my great adversity, I shall be abun
dantly refreshed with thy loving countenance towards me.

XVIII. 2. " The LORD is my rock, and my fortress."] See for
this whole Psalm in 2 Sam. xxii.

XIX. 2. " Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night
sheweth knowledge."] — As the continual succession of day and
night doth notably set forth the wonderful power and providence
of God, so there is no day or night wherein God doth not renew
unto us some notable demonstration of his goodness, power, and
wisdom in this great administration : every day affords us some
new document thereof.

3. " There is no speech or language, ivhere their name is not
heard."]— Though these heavens and this day and night be mute,
yet their speech and language is universally understood ; so as the
world, being distinguished by a variety of tongues, (the people
whereof understand not each other, yet) all of them through the
whole earth understand this voice, whereby the heavens, and day,
and night, praise their Maker.

4. "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their

182 PARAPHRASE UPON

words to the end of the world. In them hath he made a taber
nacle for the sun.11] —The line that God made for the passage of
the sun, the first day of his motion is still and ever perpetuated
round about the earth ; so as God hath herein spoken, both to our
ears by the voice, and to our eyes by the visible lines that he hath
drawn of this great frame and continual and constant revolution of
the heavens ; in which he hath made a receptacle over and besides
all other those glorious planets and stars, for the sun, as his most
remarkable creature.

XX. i. "The name of the God of Jacob defend thee."] — The
almighty power of him that is named the God of Jacob protect
and defend thee.

i. "Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee
out of Sion."] — Send thee help from the holy heavens, and from
his sanctuary, which is the type and figure thereof; and strengthen
thee out of Sion, where he hath by his command appointed the
holy ark of his covenant to be placed, and from thence gives an
swers and directions to all thine actions.

XXI. 9. " Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of
thine anger."] —Those that are insolent and presumptuous ene
mies of the kingdom of thy Christ, thou shalt confound with thy
most terrible judgments ; thou shalt consume them and theirs in
the extremity of thy wrathful vengeance.

12. "Therefore shalt thou make them turn their backs, (or, as
in the margin, Thou shalt set them as a butt,) when thou shalt
make ready thine arrows upon thy string."] — Thou shalt make
them as a butt, against which thou shalt level thine arrows of
judgment : thou shalt set them as noted objects of thy fearfullest
revenge.

XXII. 1 2. " Many bulls have compassed me : strong bulls of Ba-
shan have beset me round."] — Mine enemies (and in type, thine,
0 Saviour) are more like unto beasts than men ; like furious
bulls, which have been pampered in the fat pastures of Bashan,
they beset me, and are ready to gore me through.

1 6. " For dogs have compassed me : the assembly of the wicked
have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet."] — Nei
ther are they like to bulls for their strength, and lions for their
fierceness, only; but they are also like unto dogs for clamour
and cruel insultation ; they both bite me with their teeth, and
bay at me with their impure throats; thus do my implacable
enemies persecute, me ; yea, they have done that to mo, in figure

PSALMS XX. i.— XXIV. 7. 183

and representation, which they shall do really to thee my Sa
vour, they have pierced my hands and my feet.

20. " Deliver, &c. my darling from the power of the dog."]

Deliver thou, 0 Lord, my dear life from the power and cruelty
of these, savage and merciless enemies.

29. " All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship : all
they that go down to the dust shall bow before thee : and none
can keep alive his own soul."] — Not only the poor and needy
shall cheerfully eat of thy sacrifices, but even the wealthy and
great also shall partake thereof, and worship thee ; yea all those
that, humble themselves even to the dust of death for the profes
sion of thy name, even those that have no care to keep them
selves alive when their life may stand in the way of thy honour,
they shall humbly adore thee.

31. " They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto
a people that shall be born, that he hath done this"'] — They shall
make report of the righteous judgments of God unto that poste
rity which is yet unborn, and shall declare that it is he that hath
done these great things.

XXIII. 4. " I will fear no evil : for thou art with me ; thy rod
and thy staff they comfort rne.r>] — As I am thy sheep, and thou
my shepherd, 0 God, so shall I be ever confident in thy pro
tection. What can the sheep fear while they see their shepherd
ready to defend them ? Thus shall I ever hold myself safe and
sure under thy defence and thy gracious direction.

5. <f Thou anointest my head with oil ; my cup runneth over."]
— Thou givest me abundance of all helps and comforts, not only
for necessity, but even for pleasure also.

XXIV. 2. "He hath founded it upon the seas."] — He hath
caused the waters to lie lower than the surface of the earth for the
convenience of man's habitation ; so hath he therefore lifted the
earth over the sea, as if to our sense it were founded thereupon.

6. " This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek
thy face, O Jacob."] — This is the generation of those that do
truly and sincerely serve God with an holy worship ; the true
sons of thee, O Jacob, who faithfully apply themselves to serve
the God of Jacob.

7. ''Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye
everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in.11] — It
shall not be long that God shall dwell in these moving taber
nacles : ere long he shall settle his abode in a fixed and lasting

184 PARAPHRASE UPON

habitation of his temple; 0 therefore, ye firm and ever-during
doors of his temple, open yourselves cheerfully to receive that
King of Glory which shall come to dwell in those sacred walls,
and triumph in so blessed a guest ; and ye, the faithful hearts of
all believers, who are his living temple shadowed by that other,
raise up your souls to entertain him unto your everlasting comfort.

XXV. 2. "Let them be ashamed which transgress without

«_/ o

cause."] — Magnify thou thy justice, in pouring shame upon the
face of those which rise up against me spitefully, without any just
cause or occasion of provocation on my part.

14. " The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him."] —
The Lord bears a secret love and favour to those that fear him,
however they may seem outwardly neglected ; and, in a gracious
familiarity, he imparts unto them the great mysteries of his will
and their salvation.

XXVI. i. "Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine
integrity."] — O God, do thou stand out for me, and give sentence
with me ; for thou knowest I have walked in uprightness and
sincerity before thee : however I may have failed in weakness,
yet my purposes and desires have been truly devoted to thee.

6. " I will wash my hands in innocency : so will I compass thine
altar. O LORD.""] — Lord, thou requirest holiness in them that come
near thee, which thou hast signified by those many legal cleansings
and lotions : I will be careful accordingly to purge my heart and
hands from all impurity of my sins ; and then will I approach to
thine altar, and offer my sacrifices to thee.

9. "Gather not my soul with sinners."1] — O do not take away
my soul with sinners : thou seest I would not do as they do. 0
let me not speed as they do!

XXVII. 2. "And my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh."]
— When my savage and cruel enemies came against me, like
ravenous beasts, in an intention to worry and devour me.

XXVIII. 3. "Draw me not away with the wicked."] — Do not
iriwrap me in thy judgments together with the wicked ; whom
thou draggest to their execution suddenly.

XXIX. 2. "Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness."] —
Worship ye the Lord in that beautiful and glorious sanctuary,
where he exhibits his presence to his people.

3. "The voice of the LORD is upon (or, over) the waters, &c."J
— The dreadful thunder wherein God speaks his power unto us
is above, in those higher waters of the clouds : there and thence

PSALMS XXV. 3.— XXXII. 3. 185

doth God speak unto us, more loud and terribly than all the roar
ing of these lower waters.

6. "He maketh them to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion
like a young unicorn."] —The voice of this thunder makes the
very earth to shake, so, as the great mountains of Lebanon and
Hermon are, as it were, moved out of their places with this horri
ble agitation.

7. " The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire."] — This
voice of the thunder causeth the fearful flashes of the lightnings to
break forth of the clouds, to the astonishing of the world8.

9. " The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and
discovereth the forests."] — The terror of this voice causeth the
hinds, which do not easily deliver themselves of their burden, to
cast their calves, for fear ; and so shaketh down, not the leaves
and twigs only, but the very trees of the forest, that they are left
bare, and open to all eyes.

XXX. 7. " Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong."] —
Thou hast settled my habitation so firm and safe in my mountain
of Sion.

9. "Shall the dust praise thee?"] See Psalm vi. 5.

12. "To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee."] —
To the end that my tongue, which is the only instrument whereby
we can express glory, may sing praise unto thee.

XXXI. 8. " Thou hast not shut me up into the hand of the
enemy : thou hast set my feet in a large room."] — Thou hast not
given me over into the power of mine enemy ; but hast enlarged
me, and set me free from the fear or danger of his attempts.

12. "I am like a broken vessel."] — I am cast aside like a broken
vessel, quite past all use or regard.

20. " Thou shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife
of tongues."] — As that which is hid in some secret and sure corner
is safe from all eyes ; so, through thy merciful care, are they laid
up, under the covert of thy providence, from all their enemies,
and from the issue of all those slanderous suggestions which they
make against them.

XXXII. 3. "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, &c."]
— When I concealed and suppressed my guiltiness, and smothered
my sin in my bosom ; I was extremely afflicted therewith ; my
body decayed and languished.

a [It is hardly necessary to remark upon the imperfectness of physical
knowledge when the author lived.]

186 PARAPHRASE UPON

6. " Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come
nigh unto him."] — Surely, in the greatest extremity of troubles
and persecution, there shall no evil have power to seize upon him
whom thou hast taken to thy protection.

9. " Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no un
derstanding."] — Be not either stupid or refractory under the hand
of God, like to brute beasts which have no understanding.

XXXIII. 7. " He gathereth the waters of the sea together as
an heap : he layeth up the depth in storehouses."] — The element
of waters, though it be fluid, and naturally apt to spread and
diffuse itself, yet hath he, in his providence and power, gathered
it up and compacted it close together, as into one heap ; and part
thereof, instead of overflowing the face of the earth, he hath con
fined into the secret receptacles thereof.

15. " He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their
works."] — In vain shall the crafty ones of the world think to
bring about their plots against God: he formed and fashioned
their hearts, as well as the simplest and silliest of all his creatures ;
and therefore he well knows and considers all that they go about.

XXXIV. 20. " He keepeth all his bones : not one of them is
broken."] — He taketh charge of all that belongs to his children;
so as no violence shall be prejudicial unto them : not only their
bones, but the very hairs of their head are numbered : in vain
shall their enemies hope to fasten any evil upon them, which the
wise providence of God hath not foreappointed for their good.

XXXV. 5. " Let them be as chaff before the wind : and the
angel of the LORD scattering them."'] — Though thou hast ways
enow by natural and ordinary means to plague thine enemies,
vet, besides do thou give them over into the hands of thine angels,

v J fj *

whether good or evil, to vex them according to their deserts.

10. " All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee ?"] —
All the powers and parts of my soul and body shall praise thee ;
and confess thee to be my only good and gracious God.

14. "I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his
mother."] — I hanged down my head in a serious humiliation, as
one that had lost his dearest friend, even the mother that bore
him.

16. " With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon
me with their teeth."] — Those pretended false friends of mine, at
their feasts made me their tabletalk ; and there signified their
malicious conceits against me.

PSALMS XXXII. 6.— XXXVII. 21. 187

•*.

17. " My darling from the lions."] — Deliver my dear and pre
cious life from these cruel and brutish enemies.

19. "Neither let them wink with their eyes that hate me with
out a cause."] — Those that do secretly scorn me, by their privy
gestures of contempt, winking with their eyes, and wrying their
faces at me, in a disdainful manner, do thou meet with them, and
let them not have cause to insult over me.

XXXVI. i. "The transgression of the wicked saith within my
heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes."] — So lewdly
doth the wicked man demean himself, that my heart easily and
justly tells me, that there is no fear of God within him.

6. " Thy righteousness is like the great mountains."1*] — Thy
righteousness is like some huge and high mountain, which we may
see afar off; but can never comprehend with our eye all the ex
tent and largeness of it, &c.

8. "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy
house ; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy plea
sures."] — They shall be abundantly satisfied with all thy bless
ings, both temporal and spiritual ; and shall not only be fed up to
a sufficiency, but shall be furnished with thy merciful provisions,
even to delight and pleasure.

9. " For with thee is the fountain of life : and in thy light shall
we see light.1'] — In, and from thee, is the ground of alt true com
fort : all life and happiness is derived only from thee ; and of that
infinite store of joy and contentment that is in thee, we shall par
take in our measure, enjoying thy blessings and gracious illumi
nations.

] i. "Let not the foot of pride come against me."] — Let not
the proud man prevail against me : 0 do thou deliver me from
his insolent insultations !

XXXVII. 13. "The LORD shall laugh at him: for he seeth
that his day is coming."] — The Lord who takes notice of all his
secret plots, shall laugh him to scorn ; for, howsoever the foolish
wicked man flatters himself in the conceit of his safety and sta
bility of condition, yet the alhvise God sees that his destruction is
at hand.

20. " They shall be as the fat of lambs : they shall consume ;
into smoke shall they consume away.**] — They shall vanish away
into smoke ; as the fat of lambs which is laid upon the altar in
sacrifice, so shall they be suddenly consumed.

21. "The wicked borrovveth, and paycth not again: but the

188 PARAPHRASE UPON

righteous showoth mere}', and giveth."] — The wicked man shall
be punished with such want, that when he shall be driven to bor
row, he shall not have wherewith to repay, but the righteous shall
have enough, both for his own use and for the charitable supply
of others.

25. " I have been young, and now am old ; yet have I not seen
the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread."] — In all my
lifetime, I have diligently observed the good hand that God hath
held over his righteous servants ; whose provision for them I have
noted to be wonderfully careful and gracious, so as the affliction
of want hath not continued upon them, and been derived from
them to their children : if they have been straitened with penury
for the time, yet it hath ere long been supplied either to them
selves or theirs.

37. " Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright : for the
end of that man is peace/'] — However it please God so to order
the events of this life, that they fall out indifferently to the godly
and wicked men, and perhaps the worst may speed better here
than the holiest ; yet. look to the end of both, and ye shall well
observe a clear difference of God's respects ; for in the end, the
godly man shall find a gracious retribution from the Lord his
God, when the wicked man shall be everlastingly confounded.

XXXVITI. 2. "For thine arrows stick fast in me."] — Thine
afflictions, as so many sharp arrows, gall my soul and stick fast
in me.

4. " For mine iniquities are gone over mine head."] — Mine ini
quities are as some deep waters, wherein, without thy mercy and
grace, I should be utterly drowned ; for I am sunk under them,
as not able to uphold myself against the guilt of them.

5. "My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolish-
ishness."] — It is no short and transient affliction which I suffer,
but lingeringly painful and loathsome ; all which is most justly
brought upon me by my sin, which I have foolishly committed.

13. " But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and / was as a dumb
man that openeth not his mouth."] — But I would take no notice
of their designs ; only in a patient and humble silence commend
ing myself to thy blessed care, and them to thy just revenge.

17. "For I am ready to halt."]— If thou didst not sustain me,
O Lord, I am ready to be utterly depressed with my calamity,
and to yield unto the weak doubts and diffidence of my natural
corruption.

PSALMS XXXVII. 25.— XLII. i. 189

XXXIX. i. "I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin
not with my tongue : I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while
the wicked is before me."] — I have set down this constant reso
lution in my heart, that I will look carefully to myself ; and how
ever my affliction be very great, yet that I will not give my tongue
leave to break into any impatient or unbeseeming speeches, while
it pleaseth God to exercise me with the malice of wicked men.

2. "1 held my peace, even from good ; and my sorrow was
stirred."] — I refrained* my tongue from speaking that which I
might have justly said in my own defence, and in their reproof
and conviction, though I were so much the more pained in my
suppression thereof.

XL. 2. " He brought me out of an horrible pit, out of the miry
clay, and set my feet upon a rock," &c.] — He delivered me out of
extreme distress and misery, and out of so woful a condition, as
wherein there was neither comfort nor hope ; and set me upon the
firm ground of good assurance and steadfast safety.

6. " Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire ; mine ears hast
thou opened : burnt offerings and sin offerings hast thou not re
quired."] — I do not come to thee, 0 Lord, in the formalities of
legal sacrifices, as thinking to please thee by these outward acts
of devotion ; but I bring a sincere heart to thee, and a perpared
ear, in comparison whereof, burnt offerings and sin offerings are
of no value to thee.

7, 8. " Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it
is written of me, I delight to do thy will, 0 God."] — When thou
hadst thus addressed my heart and my ear, then I said cheer
fully, Behold, Lord, I am ready to consecrate myself unto thee :
in the volume of thine everlasting counsel, signified by thy re
vealed will, it is written both of me, and especially of thy blessed
Son, whose type I bear, that we should do thy will cheerfully and
effectually.

12. "Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am
not able to look up."] — These evils, which mine iniquities have
brought upon me, are so many and great, that I am not able to
sustain them, but must needs droop under them, without thy mer
ciful release.

XLII. i. u As the hart panteth for the water brooks, so panteth
my soul after thee, 0 God/3] —The thirsty and panting deer, in
the extremity of drought, doth not more eagerly long for the
water brooks, wherein to cool and refresh himself, than I do for

190 PARAPHRASE UPON

my access to thy holy sanctuary, O Lord, even to thy tabernacle,
from whence I am forcibly driven.

2. " My soul thirsteth for God."] — My soul doth vehemently
thirst after this thy presence.

4. " When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me:
for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house
of God, with the voice of joy and praise."] — When I remember
my former happiness, how I had the liberty and favour of leading
the multitude up to thy holy tabernacle, and bethink myself with
what joy and melody we went up heretofore to this house of thine,
I cannot but pour out my soul into tears and lamentations, to con
sider my grievous restraint and exile from it.

6. " 0 my God, my soul is cast down within me : therefore
will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Her-
monites, from the hill Miznr."] — My soul is cast down with this
affliction : in whom should I then seek for comfort, but in thee,

0 God ? Therefore, since I cannot be present at thine house, yet

1 will ever remember and think upon it wherever I am in my
utmost banishment ; whether in that eastern land beyond Jordan,
or the southern coast of the mountains of Hermonim, or in this
little obscure hill wherein I now am.

7. " Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts."]
— One affliction, like so many waves, comes in the neck of an
other, and in a miserable succession as it were calls for the next,
upon thy predetermination of these my adversities, which do as
it were gush out from thee by those conveyances which thou hast
ordained.

8. " Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the
daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me.v] — The
Lord will be graciously present to help and comfort me ; and as
in the daytime he will cheer me up with the sense of his loving-
kindness, so in the night also he will put songs of praise and
thanksgiving into my mouth.

XL1V. 12. " Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not
increase thy wealth by their price."] — We are made more base,
0 God, than those bondslaves that are sold by their victors :
there is somewhat given for them to their owners ; but as for us,
O Lord, thou hast sold us for nothing, and hast as it were cast us
away as unworthy to be prized.

19. " Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons."]
Though thou have humbled us so low as to the very bottom of the

PSALMS XLII. 2.— XLV. 7. 191

deep, and hast cast us down into the extremest degree of sorrow
and misery.

XLV. i. " I speak of the things which I have made tou china-
the king : my tongue is the pen of a ready writer."] — I speak
of that holy ditty which I have made touching king Solomon, in
the type of him that was greater than Solomon, even the Kino-
of Glory, the great Bridegroom of his spouse the Church : my
tongue shall be swift and free in her expressions of his just
praises.

2. " Thou art fairer than the children of men : grace is poured
into thy lips."] — 0 Saviour, there is more true inward beauty in
thee than in all the sons of men ; yea, all the glory and excellence
which they have is only derived from thee : so full of grace were
thy lips, that thou spakest as never man spake.

3. " Gird Jihy sword upon thy thigh, 0 most mighty, with thy
glory and thy majesty."] — As thou art armed with infinite power,
O thou Lord of Hosts, so let it please thee to buckle thyself to
the exercise of this power, to the subduing of the many and mighty
enemies of thy Church, and deck thyself with such glory and ma
jesty as may confound thy opposers.

4. " And in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and
meekness and righteousness ; and thy right hand shall te^ch thee
terrible things."] — Go thou on happily to execute the great ad
ministration of thy kingly office, in the behalf of thy Church, be
cause of the meekness of thy person, and truth of thy word, and
righteousness of thy promises and performances; and the right
hand of thy power shall bring to pass strange and fearful things.

5. " Thine arrows are sharp, in the heart of the king's ene
mies : whereby the people fall under thee."] — Thy judgments are
severely and mortally executed upon the enemies of thy Divine
Sovereignty ; and upon the sight thereof the people of the world
are glad to humble themselves under thine almighty hand.

6. " Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever : the sceptre of
thy kingdom is a right sceptre."] — The thrones of earthly princes
are, like themselves, brittle and variable, and their government
many times drawn aside to protect evil and depress good; but
thy throne, 0 Saviour, is everlasting : even when heaven shall
pass, it shall continue, and thy government can be no other than
holy and righteous.

7. " Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with
the oil of gladness above thy fellows."]— Therefore God, even

192 PARAPHRASE UPON

thy God, hath anointed thee from everlasting, as the King,
Priest, and Prophet of thy Church, with that heavenly oil,
whereby he hath gladded the hearts of all thy chosen people ;
and hath endowed thine assumed humanity with all divine graces
above all mere mankind.

8. "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia,
out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad/'] —
As thy garments, 0 Solomon, are perfumed with that precious
confection, which is made of the choicest odours, when thou com-
est out of thine ivory palaces, with which excellent fragrancies
thine attendants have cheered thy heart : so it is with thee, O
Saviour ; thy human nature, wherewith thou art clad, is furnished
with all graces and perfections, when thou descendest out of the
glorious palace of heaven, whereby thou wert cheerfully enabled
to perform this great work of thy mediation. ^

9. " Kings1 daughters were among thy honourable women :
upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir."] —
Thou hast the honourable attendance of many noble and famous
congregations, that desire and delight to wait upon thine ordi
nances ; but the Spouse, thine holy Catholic Church, is so honoured
by thee, that she is set upon thy right hand clothed with all true
glory and magnificence.

10. " Hearken, 0 daughter, and consider, and incline thine
ear ; forget also thy father's house."} — And now, 0 daughter of
Egypt, hear what I shall say to thee, in type of the true Church
and Spouse of my Saviour : in lieu of so great mercy as God
hath showed thee in singling thee out of the world, it is thy duty
to forget the corrupt condition of thy nature, and to be aliened
in thine affections from all earthly things ; it is not for thee to
think any more of the Egypt of this world, but to be as a stranger
to all earthly vanities.

n. "So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty : for he is
thy Lord : and worship thou him."] — So shall God take pleasure
in those graces which he hath given thee thus to improve, and be
graciously affected with thy holy obedience which thou justly re-
servest for him alone ; for he is the Lord thy God, and therefore
all thy worship and service is due to none but him.

12. "And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift;
even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour/']— The
neighbouring and yet foreign churches shall, in an acknowledg
ment of thy great honour and happiness, present thee with the

PSALM XLV. 8.— XLVI. 4. 193

service of their love and gifts of their bounty, and those that
are great and famous in their reputation shall seek communion
with thee.

13. " The king's daughter is all glorious within : her clothing
is of wrought gold."] — Solomon's bride the daughter of Pharaoh,
and Christ's Spouse the daughter of the King of Heaven, are
both inwardly glorious; the one with rich embroideries, the
other with excellent and heavenly graces ; the one is clothed
with gold, the other with the righteousness of her Saviour and
with all divine virtues.

14. " She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needle
work : the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought
unto thee."] — Neither hath she this glory put upon her only to
please and amaze the eyes of the beholders, but the main use of
this goodly bravery is, that she shall appear glorious in the eyes
of the King of Glory, her celestial Husband, to whom she shall
be presented in this goodly habit of grace ; not without the at
tendance of all those believing souls that appertain to that blessed
train of hers.

15. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought; they
shall enter into the king's palace."] — With unspeakable joy and
triumph shall they be presented unto the throne of glory : even
into that palace not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,
the seat and mansion of the everliving God, shall they be brought,
by the ministry and with the acclamation of the blessed angels
of God.

16. "Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou
mayest make princes in all the earth."] — This happy marriage
of thine shall be blessed with multitudes of children, who shall
succeed their fathers in a comfortable and during government ;
the issue and condition whereof shall be so large and happy, that
they shall be so many kings upon earth ; and all thrones shall be
furnished with princes from thy loins, forasmuch as all thy spiritual
children are a royal generation unto God.

17. "I will make thy name to be remembered in all genera
tions : therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever."]
0 my God and Saviour, I, who by thy gracious inspiration have
made this bridal-song unto thee, will celebrate and praise thy
blessed Name to all generations, and will stir up thy people to
bless and praise thee for ever and ever.

XLVI. 4. " There is a river, the streams whereof shall make

BP. HALL, VOL. III. O

194 PARAPHRASE UPON

glad the city of God."] — Let the sea of this world roar and be
never so unquiet, the holy city Jerusalem, the type of God's
Church, hath a little river, even Gihon or Kidron, whose calm
and gentle streams shall abundantly refresh it : and the mystical
Jerusalem hath both the waters of life, the word of the everliving
God, to comfort and satisfy it here ; and those living waters of life
eternal in the Paradise of God, to make it everlastingly happy.

9. " He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth ; he
breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in pieces ; he burneth
the chariot in the fire."] — He can, when he pleaseth, put an end
to those broils and tyrannous oppositions and persecutions where
with his Church is wont to be infested, and can cause the enemies
thereof to be still.

XLVII. 4. " He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excel
lency of Jacob whom he loved."] — He hath graciously made
choice of us for his peculiar people, and of the land of Canaan for
an inheritance for us ; and hath purchased and prepared a more
glorious inheritance for us above, even the inheritance of his
saints in lio-ht : and in the mean time hath graced us with all

~ ? O

those noble privileges which are appropriated to the seed of Jacob
whom he loved.

5. " God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of
a trumpet."] — As the ark of God is gone with much triumph and
joy to be placed in the temple of the Lord, so the Son of God is
with much rejoicing of angels and men both received into his
evangelical Church on earth, and afterwards taken up into the
glory of heaven.

9. " For the shields of the earth belong unto God/'] — Unto
God only belongeth the safe and gracious protection of his Church
and children ; and he accordingly raiseth up and defendeth those
princes and governors, under whose rule his Church is preserved
in peace.

XLVIII. 4. " For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by
together."] — The heathen kings, especially Sennacherib and his
mighty hosts and assistants, came up against Jerusalem with me
naces of utter destruction ; but they stayed not long before those
walls ere they were sent away with shame and slaughter.

7. " Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind."] —
As a navy by sea is dispersed by a furious east wind, so didst thou,
O Lord, scatter and discomfit those mighty enemies that came up
asrainst Jerusalem.

PSALM XLVI.y.-L. r. 195

8. " As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD
of hosts."] — According to the relation of thy former deliverances
of thy people, reported to us by our forefathers, so have our eyes
been witnesses of thy present rescue of our city and nation.

12, 13. " Tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks,
consider her palaces."] — Look well, 0 ye beholders, upon the many
and goodly towers of Jerusalem, upon her strong fortifications,
upon her fair palaces ; and, as thereby you shall bo excited to
praise God for the deliverance of so noble and beautiful a pile, so
take occasion thereby to think of the splendour and glory of that
heavenly Jerusalem which is above.

XLIX. 5. " Why should I fear in the days of evil, when the
iniquity of my heels shall compass me about ?"] — Why should I
fear upon any occasion whatsoever ? whether it be upon the con
science of the iniquity of my own footsteps ; or whether upon the
prosecution of those enemies which follow me at the heels, and arc
ready to environ me ?

7, 8. " None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor
give to God a ransom for him ; for the redemption of their soul
is precious, and it ceaseth for ever."] — It is not in the power of
the wealthy and great men of the world to ransom another man
from death by all their riches and treasures ; for the life of man
is of greater price and value than can be countervailed by any
earthly thing ; and therefore this redemption is a thing not to be
eifected or hoped for at all.

14. " And the upright shall have dominion over them in the
morning ; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their
dwelling."] — But, however they nourish and sway here, yet, after
the long night of the grave is past, in the morning of the resur
rection, the just and righteous servants of God, whom they have
here trampled upon, shall so have dominion over them, that they
shall sit as their judges : in the mean time all their glory and
bravery shall be consumed and rot away in the dust of their grave.

20. " Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the
beasts that perish."] — That man who lives in outward honour
and yet wants true wisdom and understanding, to know God and
himself, lives as a beast, and dies as a beast, brutishly.

L. i. "The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and
called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down
of the same.'1''] — Hear, 0 ye inhabitants of the earth ; the great
and mighty God of heaven, having taken just notice of the extreme

o 2

196 PARAPHRASE UPON

depravedness of the ways of men, calls you to account of this your
universal wickedness, even all the world over, from one side of the
earth to the other.

2. " Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined."]
—Behold, God hath shown himself in his holy hill of Zion, where

his temple, the glory of the whole earth, standeth : there he ex
hibits his majesty, and thence shall he control the wickedness of
men.

3. "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence : a fire
shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round
about him."] — In great terror and majesty shall God declare his
displeasure against the presumptuous sins of men ; for he shall
come attended with fire and tempest : a devouring fire shall go
before him, and a fearful tempest shall be round about him.

4. " He shall call to the heaven above, and to the earth, that
he may judge his people."] — He shall appeal both to the heavens
and earth as the witnesses of his just proceedings with men, and
their too just deservings of judgments, and as the summoners of
this great appearance.

5. " Gather my saints together unto me ; those that have made a
covenant with me by sacrifice."] — Let that heaven and that earth,
saith he, summon together before me that chosen people of mine
who have made an external profession of my name, and have, by
the continual use of their sacrifices, outwardly renewed their cove
nant with me.

6. "And the heavens shall declare his righteousness : for God
is judge himself."] — Yea, those heavens shall not only summon
his people and witness their wickedness, but shall also proclaim
and declare to the world his apparent justice, both in giving his
law and in exacting it of them ; neither shall their hypocrisy any
longer deceive the eyes of men, for now, God himself, who cannot
be deluded, will unmask their wickedness before all the world.

8, 9. " I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, &c. I will take
no bullock,"" &c.] — Do not think to choke me with the formalities
of thine outward sacrifices : these are not the things I stand upon.

LI. 4. " Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this
evil in thy sight : that thou mightest be justified when thou speak-
est, and be clear when thou judgest."] — It is only thy prohibi
tion, 0 God, that can make a sin : I have sinned against men,
but it is thy law that I have violated in that my offence ; and if I
have so carried my sin that the world takes not notice of it, yet I

PSALM L. 2.— LI. 12. 197

know it cannot be hid from thee ; thou only, as thou canst chargo
me with it, so canst remit it unto me : I do therefore freely ac
knowledge these horrible sins of mine, that I may clearly acquit
thee in thy proceedings against me : the reproof of thy prophet,
the menaces of thy judgment, are too well deserved on my part :
do what thou wilt with me, I must needs justify thy severe courses
against me.

6. " And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wis
dom.''] — Notwithstanding this darkness that I have brought upon
my soul by my sin, thou shalt in thy great mercy so enlighten
me, that in the secret corners of my heart I shall understand that
wonderful mystery of my redemption and salvation in the blood
of my Saviour.

7. "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and
I shall be whiter than snow."] — O, do thou then, by that precious
blood, sprinkled upon my soul by a true faith, which was and is
figured in the legal aspersions, cleanse me from mine iniquities ;
so shall I be pure and innocent in thy sight : wash me in that all-
sufficient laver of the blood of my Saviour ; so shall I be whiter
than snow before thee.

8. " Make me to hear joy and gladness ; that the bones which,
thou hast broken may rejoice."] — Do thou speak peace and recon
ciliation to thy servant : renew the joy of my heart in the com
fortable assurance of thy forgiveness ; that so my soul, which is
now dejected and justly grieved for my sin, may find cause of re
joicing in thee.

i j . ' ' Cast me not away from thy presence ; and take not thy
Holy Spirit from me."] — Howsoever I have deserved that thou
shouldest cast me off, and strip me of all the graces and gifts of
thy Spirit, which thou hast blessed me with ; yet, 0 Lord, do not
thou deal thus with me, but continue me in thy presence, and con
tinue thy graces in me.

12." Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation ; and uphold me
with thy free Spirit."] — How can I, 0 Lord, be other than pensive
and miserable, whilst I stand in these terms with thee ? What
comfort can I find till my heart be assured of thy favour ? 0, do
thou restore to me that joy of thy Holy Ghost which I have wont
to feel in the clear and evident apprehension of my salvation ; and
though I have made myself a slave to my sin, yet do thou free
me by thy good Spirit ; and thereby do thou maintain me in this
happy liberty of thy service.

198 PARAPHRASE UPON

1 6. " For thou desirest not sacrifice ; else would I give it : thou
delightest not in burnt offerings."]— 0 God, it is not the price or
the outward ceremony of legal sacrifices that either thou takest
pleasure in or I affect to rest in ; else I would be glad to come to
thee with thousands of rams ; but these bare external rites are not
the thing thou requirest.

17. " The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit : a broken and
a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."] — Here is another
and a better sacrifice, which I present thee withal, even a broken
and humbled soul ; and this I know (such is thy wonderful mercy)
cannot but be very acceptable unto thee.

LII. i. " Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, 0 mighty man ?
the goodness of God endureth continually."] — O thou vain and
foolish Doeg, why dost thou thus pride thyself in Saul's favour, as
if thou wert now able to do what mischief thou listest ? Know
that there is an higher hand that can either stint thee or cut thee
off at pleasure : in vain shalt thou strive against that Omnipotent
Power and Goodness, which ever remains ready to assist and de
liver his Church.

LIII. i. " The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."]
— There is none so foolish as an obdured sinner ; and that fool
doth herein most approve his folly, in that (though with his mouth
he dare not, yet) in his heart he hath said, There is no God : so
lewd are his imaginations, desires, and affections, as if he verily
thought and resolved, there is no supreme power that takes notice
of and will revenge his lawless impieties.

4. "Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?" &c.] See
Psalm xiv. 4, and so for the whole Psalm.

LIV. i . " Save me, 0 God, by thy name, and judge me by thy
strength."] — 0 God, do thou save me by thy mighty power ; and
stand out for me in my just vindication, by thy strength.

LV. 9. " Destroy, 0 Lord, and divide their tongues : for I have
seen violence and strife in the city."] — 0 Lord, do thou destroy
mine enemies; and for this cause do thou divide them in their
plots and consultations, that they may cross each other in their
conspiracies and attempts; for I have too well seen them, apt
both to devise and execute violent practices against thy Church.

12. " For it was not an enemy that reproached me ; then I
could have borne it:" &c.]— It was not an open and professed
enemy that hath offered this cruel measure to me, for then I
could have borne it off. and have wisely avoided it ; or if I must

PSALM LI. 1 6.— LVII. 7. 199

needs have suffered it, I could have endured it with so much more
patience, by how much I should have more expected it ;

13. " But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine
acquaintance.11] — But it was thou, O Ahithophel, a man of note,
of noble rank, of great respect with me ; whom I used familiarly.

14. "We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the
house of God in company."] — With whom I did oft communicate
my counsels, as with my bosom friend ; yea, whom profession of
religious devotion had, as 1 supposed, assured to me, as my true
friend ; while we oft walked unto the house of God in a loving
partnership of holy duties.

19. "Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not
God."] — Because their posterity continues, and they find no change
of their estate, no interposition of crosses and troubles, therefore
their hearts are hardened against that God by whom they are
insensibly blessed ; neither do they stand in awe of that hand of
justice whose smart they have never felt.

LVI. 3. " What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee."] — Howso
ever, such as my weakness is, I cannot but be overtaken with
some fear ; yet my fear shall never transport me from my trust
and confidence in thee ; but in the midst of that my natural timor-
ousness, I will cast myself upon thee, arid repose my heart upon
thy mercy.

8. " Thou tellest my wanderings : put thou my tears into thy
bottle; are they not in thy book?"] — 0 God, thou takest full
notice of all the persecutions that I have undergone ; thou notest
every step of my long and forced wanderings : 0 let not any of
those tears which I shed be spilt in the dust ; keep thou them,
as most precious liquor, in thy bottle : yea, Lord, thou hast done
it already ; thy favour hath prevented me ; thou hast set down the
number of all tears in thy book of everlasting record.

LVII. 4. " My soul is among lions : and I lie even among them
that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears
and arrows, and their tongues a sharp sword."] — 0 Lord, I am
beset with cruel and bloody enemies, whose hearts are inflamed
with deadly malice against me ; even men given over to wicked
ness; whose mouths are full of mischievous slanders and reproaches,
wherewith they endeavour to wound me to the death.

7. " My heart is fixed, O God (or, prepared,) my heart is fixed:
I will sing and give praise."] — 0 God, I do not suddenly and
abruptly break forth into these praises of thy name, as a thing not

200 PARAPHRASE UPON

before thought of, but I have seriously digested in my soul these
my hearty thanksgivings unto thee.

8. "Awake up, my glory;" &c.]— And therefore, 0 thou my
tongue, which is the only instrument wherewith I can express the
glory of my God, be thou stirred up cheerfully to utter the praises
of my gracious deliverer.

LVIII. 2. "Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth."]
— Instead of balancing all things by justice, ye weigh them accord
ing to the violence of your own passions : that measure, which
may satisfy your malice, and no other, is held sufficient.

3. " The wicked are estranged from the womb : they go astray
as soon as they be born."] — Neither is this any sudden surprisal
with evil, but it is a long continued habit of wickedness : their
disposition hath been perverse and malicious, even from their in
fancy ; and so they still continue, proceeding from evil to worse.

4, 5. "Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are
like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear ; which will not hearken
to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely."] — My
enemies, 0 Lord, are like unto serpents, and their malice like unto
deadly poison : yet are they not like every serpent ; some there
are, which are not so crafty, and whose poison is not so deadly ;
but my enemies are like the asp or adder, whose venom killeth
speedily ; and which beside is so subtle, that, laying one ear to the
earth, and stopping the other with his tail, he eludeth all the
power of whatsoever incantation: so do these enemies of mine;
no wholesome and holy advice can possibly fasten upon them ;
no threats of judgments can beat them off from their intended
mischiefs.

9. " Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them
away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath/'] — Let
their despatch be quick and sudden, even before the pot can boil
with a fire of dry thorns put under it, let them be consumed : yea,
God shall fetch them furiously away, as in a whirlwind ; swifter
than thought, in the midst of their life and the height of their
strength, but in the extremity of his wrath.

LIX. 5. " Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors."] —
Thou seest, O God, that these agents of Saul do maliciously per
secute me : they know well enough that I am innocent, and yet
they seek to take away my life : O do not thou give way to their
wilful spite and rancorous malice.

6. " They return at evening : they make a noise like a dog,

PSALM LV1I. 8.— LX. 7. 201

and go round about the city."]— Mine enemies are like to raven
ing dogs, which run about the city all day long, and only late at
night come to their kennel ; in the mean time barking and bay
ing for a bone to supply their hunger : even so do mine enemies
incessantly bestir themselves for my destruction.

9. "Because ofhis strength will I wait upon thee : for God is
my defence."] — The more strong and the more malicious Saul is,
the more will I look up unto thee, and cast myself upon thee for
thy protection and deliverance; for thou, O God, art my sure
refuge in my greatest distresses.

LX. 2. " Thou hast made the earth to tremble, &c. : heal the
breaches thereof, for it shaketh."] — 0 God, thou seest,that through
thy just judgment upon our land all things are out order ; and, as
it is seen oftentimes in earthquakes, here are fearful breaches
made in our state by reason of our sins : O do thou heal up these
breaches which our sins have made.

3. "Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment."] —
Thou hast made us giddy, and unable to guide ourselves, through
astonishment at thy judgments ; even as the man that is drunk
with wine reeleth, and knows not where to place his steps.

4. " Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it
may be displayed because of the truth."] — 0 God, thou hast
given to thy people an happy victory against the Syrians ; and
hast thereby encouraged them to depend upon thee in these as
saults of the men of Edom ; that thou mayest thereby be glorified
in the truth of thy promises and performances.

6. " God hath spoken in his holiness ; I will rejoice, I will di
vide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth."]— The holy
God, who can never fail his promises, hath said that concerning
me, wherein I will both trust and triumph : behold, he hath gra
ciously assured me that he will perfect and accomplish this king
dom of mine which he hath begun ; and that part of it which is
yet withheld in the hands of Ishbosheth, Saul's son, namely She
chem and the valley of Succoth, I shall receive into my full pos
session.

7. "Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is
the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver."] — As for
Gilead and Manasseh, which are the utmost coasts of Canaan,
they are as surely mine as if they had yielded themselves into
my hands already ; and as for the tribe of Ephraim, I make ac
count of that as my chief strength, and the main power of my

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kingdom: Judah, as by God's appointment and prediction was
foreordained, is the tribe of authority, which shall give laws to
Israel.

8. " Moab is my washpot ; over Edom will I cast out my shoe ;
Philistia, triumph thou because of me."] — And as for the border
ing but malignant nations of Moab, Edom, and Philistia, I shall
subdue them at pleasure, and destine them to those base offices
they are worthy of : Moab shall be as a pot of earth to wash my
feet in, which I shall soon after break into sherds ; over Edom I
will trample and insult, as it hath scornfully insulted upon God's
people ; and thou, Philistia, do thou now domineer and proudly
tyrannize over God's Israel as thou hast hitherto done, and, if thou
find cause, continue thy triumphs.

9. " Who will bring me into the strong city ? who will lead me
into Edom?"] — Who but thou, 0 Lord my God, wilt bring me
into those cities of strength which pertain to Edom ? Thou canst,
and thou wilt give me victory over those proud neighbours.

LXII. 9. " Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of
high degree are a lie : to be laid in the balance, they are altogether
lighter than vanity"] — Certainly man, of what degree or estate
soever, is mere vanity, and utterly deceitful in the trust that is
put in them : let vanity be laid in one end of the scales and man
in another, man shall be found lighter than vanity itself.

10. "Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery,"
&c.] — 0 then, trust not in that wealth and greatness which is
gotten by oppression and violence ; for ye shall find no solid com
fort and stay therein.

LXIII. 9. "Those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into
the lower parts of the earth."] — Those that maliciously persecute
me shall, by thy just hand, be brought down into the grave.

10. " They shall fall by the sword : they shall be a portion for
foxes."] — They shall fall by the sword of the enemies, and be left
in the field unburied, as a prey to wild beasts.

LXIV. 6. " And the heart is deep."] — They have plotted secret
devices against me, according to the depth of their malice and
the height of their skill.

LXV. 3. " Iniquities prevail against me : as for our transgres
sions, thou shalt purge them away/'] — 0 God, they are our ini
quities that stand in the way of thy mercies, and prevail strongly
against all the endeavours of my reformation ; but, O Lord, do
thou both mercifully forgive and powerfully remedy our offences.

PSALM LX. 8.— LXVIII. 6.

5. "By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us,
O God."] — 0 God, thou, in thine infinite justice, wilt answer the
prayers and supplications of thy Church in marvellous deliverances,
and in fearful plagues upon thine enemies.

8. " Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evenino- to
rejoice."] — Thou glorifiest thyself by the constant succession of
the day and night ; and causest all the inhabitants of the earth,
from the sunrising to the setting of the sun, to rejoice and sing
unto thee, for the great works that thou hast done.

9. " Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it : thou greatly en-
richest it with the river of God, ivhich is full of water."] — After
a faint and barren drought, thou graciously condescendest to send
down a fruitful rain upon the face of the earth : thou greatly en-
richest it with plentiful floods sent out from God, out of the clouds
of heaven.

LXVI. 1 2. " Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads ; we
went through fire and through water : but thou broughtest us out
into a wealthy place"] — Thou hast caused us to be miserably
trampled upon by our scornful and imperious enemies ; and hast
put us to all manner of hard trials : there is no afflictive element
which we have not passed through by thy just sufferance and
ordination ; but at last thou hast put an end to our troubles, and
hast settled us in a quiet plenty.

1 8. " If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear
me"] — If I give myself over to wickedness, I have no reason to
expect favour from my God : how should I look for other than
that he should mark me out for vengeance ?

LXVIII. i . " Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered," &c.]
— Thy presence, 0 God, is with thine ark : as that ark of thine
is now upon the remove, after a long rest : so do thou, O Lord,
arise, after thy seeming silence and repose, and let thine enemies
be discomfited and confounded.

4. " Extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH,"
&C-] — Extol him that moves, and rules, and governs the heavens
by his mighty power ; and dwells in that inaccessible glory : praise
him, in that his infinite and absolute being which he hath within
himself, without all relation and dependence ; and in that bounty
whereby he communicates a being to all his creatures.

6. " God setteth the solitary in families : he bringeth out those
which, are bound with chains : but the rebellious dwell in a dry
land"] — He giveth plentiful issue to those that were childless,

204 PARAPHRASE UPON

and delivers the captive out of their thraldom ; as, contrarily,
those that are rebelliously wicked, however they might seem fast
rooted in a rich patrimony, he sends away into want and exile.

7. " 0 God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when
thou didst march through the wilderness."] — 0 God, what noble
demonstrations hast thou given of old to us thy people and our
forefathers, of thy power and providence ; when thou wentest be
fore thy people, in a pillar of cloud and fire, through the wil
derness.

8. " The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence
of God : even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the
God of Israel."] — Both in the heavens and the earth didst thou
show marvellous tokens of thy mighty protection and gracious
care for thy people : all the course of nature seemed to be mira
culously altered to set forth thy power : mount Sinai itself shook
at thy presence in the delivery of thy law.

11. "The Lord gave the word: great was the company of
those that published it.""] — The Lord gave abundant matter of
celebration and thanksgiving, and there wanted not store of mes
sengers to publish his victories, or of damsels of Israel to applaud
them in their songs and minstrelsy.

12. " Kings of the armies did flee apace : and she that tarried
at home divided the spoil."] — The kings of the nations, who led
forth their armies against Israel, were glad to flee apace for their
lives ; and the spoil was so great, that the women who stayed at
home had their shares in the division of it.

13. "Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be
like the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers
with yellow gold."] — Though ye have lien, like the drudges of
the camp, in the hearths and sooty ranges of your tents, and
thereby are soiled and deformed, yet, by God's merciful deliver
ance, the case shall be so altered, as that ye shall be fair and
beautiful, like a pleasantly-coloured dove, whose feathers are as
overlaid with gold and silver.

14. "When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as
snow in Salmon."] — And howsoever God's Church seemed to be
overcast with darkness of discomfort, while tyrants oppressed her,
yet now the Almighty hath subdued and put to flight the enemies
thereof, it was white and glorious, like to the hill of Salmon, of
itself dark and shady, when it is covered with snow.

15. " The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan ; an high hill as

PSALM LXVIII. 7-23. 205

the hill of Bashan."] — Sion, which is God's hill where he pleaseth
to dwell, may well compare with the fruitful hill of Bashan ; in
height if it may equal it, in dignity and privilege it is much
above it.

1 6. '•' Why leap ye so ye high hills ? this is the hill which God
delighteth to dwell in."] — Why do ye so proudly vaunt yourselves,
0 ye mighty mountains of the earth ? ye are all of no value to
this hill, where the God of heaven hath chosen to put his name.

17. " The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands
of angels : the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in his holy
j)lace."~\ — The great Lord of Hosts is attended with thousand
thousands of heavenly angels, which are the chariots of defence for
his Church ; powerful, irresistible ; and, as he was waited on by
these innumerable angels on mount Sinai, at his majestical de
livery of the Law, so he is now attended with them, though invisi
bly, in his holy hill of Sion, where he manifesteth his gracious
presence to his people.

18. " Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity cap
tive : thou hast received gifts for men ; yea, even the rebellious
also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.'1''] — 0 Saviour,
thou art gloriously ascended up unto thine highest heavens, having
first happily triumphed over all thine enemies, and dragged them
captive after thee ; and, immediately after that glorious ascension,
thou hast sent down thy spirit upon men, in the miraculous gifts
thereof; which thou hast bountifully shed abroad, even upon those
that were formerly rebellious against thee, that even by them,
thou, O Lord, mightest magnify thyself in thy gracious inhabit
ation in them.

20. "Unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death."]—
Unto this Almighty Lord, who is the God of spirits, do belong
all the passages, both to and from death : he can deliver his from
it, he can bring his enemies into it, as seemeth best unto him.

22. "The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, I will
bring my people again from the depths of the sea."] — The Lord
hath said, Ye well know what deliverances I have wrought for my
people ; how I caused them to pass through and conquer the
country of Og, the great king of Bashan ; and how I led them
through the Red sea, in a miraculous fashion: my hand is not
shortened: I will still work the very like deliverances for my
people.

23. "That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine ene-

2()f) PARAPHRASE UPON

mies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same."] — That, as it was
in the destruction of the Egyptians, and in the conquest of Bashan
and those other proud heathens, so again, thou mayest rejoice in
the utter debellation and destruction of them that oppose them
selves spitefully against the church and kingdom of Christ, so as
thou mayest trample in their blood, and thy dogs may lick it up.
24. " They have seen thy goings, 0 God : even the goings of
my God, my King, in the sanctuary."] — 0 God, all thy people
have seen, and rejoice to see, with what exultation and spiritual
triumph, thou, my God and King, in that thy holy ark, when it
marched from the house of Obed-Edom, wentest up towards thy
sacred tabernacle.

26. "Even the Lord, from the fountain of Israel/7] — Bless ye
the Lord in the congregation of his people, all ye that flow from
that plentiful fountain of Israel.

27. "There is little Benjamin with their ruler, the princes of
Judah and their council, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes
of Naphtali."] — There are the tribes of Israel, ready and zealous
to attend upon God : Benjamin, the least of all the tribes, is not
the least forward ; but, together with their ruler, presents himself
to this service : Judah, the royal tribe, with their noble leaders,
strives to be seen in the front of this glorious train : and Zebulun
and Naphtali, though most remote in situation, yet in this holy
solemnity are not behind their fellows ; but they and their princes
put forth themselves, to celebrate this holy and happy procession
of God's ark.

28. " Thy God hath commanded thy strength."] — 0 Israel, thy
God hath decreed power and sovereignty unto thee ; so as, not
withstanding all oppositions, thou shalt be strong and mighty.

29. " Because of thy temple at Jerusalem shall kings bring
presents unto thee."] — When thou shalt have established thy
temple at Jerusalem, the kings of the earth round about thee
shall come thither, and offer presents and sacrifices there unto
thy name.

30. " Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of the
bulls, with the calves of the people, till every one submit himself
with pieces of silver: scatter thou the people that delight in
war/'] — 0 Lord, do thou confound those professed enemies of
thy Church, both their great patrons and abettors, as also their
servile and ignorant followers ; and humble thou them so far as
till they shall submit themselves to thy spiritual government, and

PSALM LXVIII. 24.— LXXII. i. 207

yield their homage and tribute unto thy Son Christ : and as for
such as take pleasure in blood, and exercise wilful hostility against
thy people, do thou utterly destroy them and their designs.

31. "Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon
stretch out her hands to thee.] — The Gentiles shall come in, and
yield subjection to thee, even those (which are most unlikely)
from the loins of Cham, the princes of Egypt and Ethiopia ; these
shall sue to be received into the bosom of the Church.

LXIX. 2. " I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing."]
— O God, I am ready to be utterly swallowed up with the evils
which are come upon me : I find not any ground of comfort to rest
my soul upon.

12. "They that sit in the gate speak against me."] — The
rulers and men of authority stick not to raise slanderous sugges
tions against me.

22. " Let their table become a snare to them."] — Let all those
comfortable helps which thou hast given them here be, in thy
just judgment, turned into so many temptations, and occasions of
their fall.

23. " Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not ; and make
their loins continually to shake."] — Let the eyes of their under
standings be so darkened, that they may not see the things
belonging to their peace ; and as thou blindest their judgment,
so do thou also weaken their strength, that they may be no less
unfit for action.

27. " Add iniquity unto their iniquity : and let them not come
into thy righteousness."] — Do thou so far give them over to the
lawless desires and counsels of their own hearts, that they may
add sin to sin until their measure be full, and may not recover
themselves by a seasonable conversion unto thee.

28. " Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and
not be written with the righteous."]— Take them away by some
sudden judgment from among the living : let not their names be
recorded among thy faithful servants here or thy saints above.

LXXI. 7. " I am as a wonder unto many."]— There are many
that gaze upon me in this my distressed condition, as if I were
some uncouth monster, some rare spectacle of thy displeasure.

1 6. I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD."]— I will go on
through the power of him that enables me to glorify my God, and
to win due praises to his name.

LXXII. i. "Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy

208 PARAPHRASE UPON

righteousness unto the king's son."] — 0 God, thou by whom kings
reign, as thou hast called me, and my son Solomon after me, to
the government of this kingdom, so do thou enable both me, for
that little time I have to live, and him, in an happy succession to
me, with those gifts of wisdom and knowledge, as also of justice
and holiness, that are fit for so great a service.

2. "He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy
poor with judgment/'] — Let him govern thy people justly
and uprightly, and even the poorer sort of them impartially and
wisely.

3. " The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the
little hills, by righteousness."] — The very mountainous parts of
the land which used to be most barren, shall, under his peaceable
and righteous government, yield an happy and joyful increase to
their owners.

5. " They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure.""]
— 0 thou Saviour of men, whose type my son Solomon shall be,
men shall serve and devoutly worship thee so long as the sun and
moon shall shine upon the earth.

6. "He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass."] —
He shall be gentle and mild in his administration, and sweet and
gracious in his heavenly doctrine, which shall distil upon the hearts
of men as the still and gentle rain falls upon the mown grass ; so
plausibly, so refreshingly.

8. " He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the
river unto the ends of the earth."] — As the dominions of Solomon
shall be large and spread far, so shall their extent be but a shadow
of that unlimited kingdom which pertains to the great Messias
whom he figureth : for behold, all the nations of the earth, even
from one end thereof unto the other, shall yield their subjection
to his spiritual kingdom.

9. " They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him."]
— Even those that are yet the most barbarous and savage people,
shall submit themselves to the sceptre of his kingdom.

10. " The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring pre
sents ; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts."] — The hea
thenish princes of remotest countries, yea, even those that are by
the broadest seas divided from the firm lands, shall acknowledge
the sovereignty of Christ; and, as in type, the queen of the
south shall come to hear and admire the wisdom of Solomon, not
without rich gifts in her hand, so shall all the far distant kings

PSALM LXVIII. 30.— LXXIIT. 18. 209

and princes of the world come in and acknowledge their homage
to this King of kings.

15. " And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold
of Sheba," &c.] — He shall live for ever, whcnas all earthly princes
shall lay down their corruptible crowns in the dust ; and so shall
his devout clients be affected to him, that they shall think their
richest treasures fittest to be presented to him.

1 6. " There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the
top of the mountains ; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon."]
— His blessing shall make the earth exceedingly fruitful ; inso
much as one handful of corn sown upon those very hills, which
might carry the suspicion of barrenness, shall grow to a marvel
lous increase ; and with a plentiful ear shall yield so large and
strong a stalk, that with the motion of the wind it shall shake
cedar-like.

LXXIII. 4. " There are no bands in their death."] — There is
neither pangs of body nor remorse and terror of soul in their death.

7. " Their eyes stand out with fatness."] — They are pampered
with the delicacies and pleasures of the world ; they are full fed
and too well-liking.

10, 11. " Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a
full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God
know?"] — Therefore God's own people and dear children come to
this pass, seeing that they are exercised with store of afflictions,
while the wicked prosper as to say, Doth the God of heaven take
notice of these things, &c.?

15. "If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend
against the generation of thy children."] — If I should yield to
these weak thought?, surely I should do wrong to the happy
estate of thy faithful ones.

16. " When I thoug-ht to know this, it was too painful for me."]
— When I looked into the ground of this complaint, I found it was
too deep for me by my own natural discourse to search into ;

17. " Until I went into the sanctuary of God."] — Until I be
took myself to inquire into the holy will of my God revealed by
his prophets.

1 8. " Surely thou didst set them in slippery places."]— Surely
thou hast so contrived it, that these wicked men, howsoever their
places be high, yet they are slippery and such as they shall never
be able to hold their feet in, but must needs fall down into ever
lasting perdition.

BP. HALL, VOL. III. p

210 PARAPHRASE UPON

20. " So, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their
image."] — So, 0 Lord, when thou stirrest up thyself to execute
judgment, thou shalt show how little thou reckonest of this vain
fancy or dream of the wicked man's prosperity.

22. "So ignorant I was, as a beast before thee."] — So igno
rant was I, and so brutish in my misconceits of these prosperous
conditions of wicked men.

23. " Nevertheless I am continually with thee : thou hast
holden me by my right hand."] — Notwithstanding, thou hast not
taken advantage of my infirmities, but renewest thy favours upon
me continually ; and keepest both my heart and my steps aright
with thee, and hast by thy mighty power upheld me from miscar
rying under this temptation.

LXXIV. 3. " Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations;
even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. "] —
O God, do thou stir up thyself to work the perpetual desolations
of thy enemies ; trample them so down that they may never rise
up again : come speedily, and take notice of all that mischief which
the enemy hath wrought against thy sanctuary.

4. '•' Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations ;
they set up their ensigns for signs."] — Thine enemies insult and
triumph in scorn of thy holy assemblies, and display proudly the
monuments of their idolatry and despite of thy worship to the
world, that all men may applaud their success and witness thy
dishonour.

5. "A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes
upon the thick trees."] — It was heretofore thought an employ
ment of much honour and merit in those men who did cut down
and square the timber trees for the building of thy holy sanctuary.

6. " But now they break down the carved work thereof at once
with axes and hammers."] — But now it is come to that pass, that
every man thinks himself to deserve most thanks that can do
most havock to thine holy place; that can most spitefully demolish
the walls and break down the goodly ceilings and curious orna
ments of thy temple.

9. " We see not our signs : there is no more any prophet :
neither is there among us any that knoweth how long."] — We
have no testimonies left us any more of God's gracious presence
with us : he hath so withdrawn himself, as that we have none of
the wonted evidences of his favour to us : we have no prophet
of whom we might ask counsel of God's purposes towards us,

PSALM LXXIII. 20.— LXXVI. 3. 211

and be informed how long we shall groan under this grievous
calamity.

13. "Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters."]
— Thou didst confound the great and mighty enemies of thine
Israel in the Red sea.

14. " Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest

him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness."] Thou

didst destroy the great princes of Egypt, and gavest their flesh
to be a prey unto wild beasts and ravenous fowls.

15. "Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou
driedst up mighty rivers."] — Thou cleavedst the rock in sunder,
and broughtest out a fountain from thence, which flowed forth in
plentiful streams; thou driedst up the great river of Jordan, that
it might give free passage to thy people through the channels
thereof.

LXXV. 2. " When I shall receive the congregation I will judge
uprightly."]— When I shall, in thine appointed time, take upon
me the charge of thy people, I will rule them justly and im
partially.

3. " The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved : I
bear up the pillars of it."] — Both the whole world, and thy
Church in special, are full of troubles and dangerous affrights : it
is I, whom thou hast from all eternity ordained to be a Mediator
betwixt thee and it, that sustain and uphold it from ruin.

8. " For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine
is red ; it is full of mixture ; and he poureth out of the same :
but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them
out, and drink them."] — God hath set to every man his measure
of sorrow and affliction ; and to the wicked he hath determined
very grievous plagues and sufferings, which they must of force
undergo : and if his children drink of the clear wine of this bitter
cup, they which are his enemies shall drink of the lees and dregs
thereof, and shall be judged in his extreme displeasure.

10. "All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off."] — The
proud strength and power of wicked men, wherein they boast
themselves, shall be abated and utterly disappointed, to their
shame.

LXXVI. 3. " There brake he the arrows of the bow, the
shield, and the sword, and the battle."] —There did he discomfit
the mighty host of Sennacherib ; and confounded them in their
military projects, and defeated their bloody executions.

p 2

212 PARAPHRASE UPON

4. Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains
of prey."] — O God, thou showedst thyself more mighty than all
the forces of those Assyrians which dwell upon the mountains ;
yea, than the strongest powers upon earth, though seconded with
the advantage of the steep and rocky mountains.

5. " The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep :
and none of the men of might have found their hands."] — The
mighty warriors that came up against Jerusalem are spoiled, and
have slept their last sleep, even in death ; neither could any of
those great champions be able to resist the destroying angel.

10. " Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee : the remainder
of wrath shalt thou restrain."] — Thou canst and dost so order the
matter, that from the spite and malice of thine enemies thou shalt
take occasion to win praise and glory to thy name ; even their
mischief shall, in despite of them, glorify thee ; in that those
judgments, which their malice draws from thee, shall cause others
to acknowledge and magnify thy power and justice : and for the
sequel, thou canst and wilt so restrain their power and tyranny,
that they shall do no further mischief to thy people.

LXXVII. 2. " My sore ran in the night, and ceased not."] —
My pain of body and the sorrow of my soul continued upon ine
without any intermission.

3. " I remembered God, and was troubled."] — I looked up to
God, and remembered him, who is the God of comfort, in whom
I was wont to find relief; and yet now my remembrance of him
added to my trouble, in that I could not feel that aid and conso
lation from him which I expected, but rather found his counte
nance hid and estranged from me.

6. "I call to remembrance my song in the night : I commune
with mine own heart : and my spirit made diligent search."] — I
call to remembrance those songs of praise which I have hereto
fore made unto thee in the deepest night of mine afflictions. I
reasoned with myself; my soul made diligent search into the
experiments of thy former mercies.

10. "And I said, This is my infirmity : but I will remember
the years of the right hand of the most High."] — Thus I said,
but I took myself in the manner, and corrected my own error,
and found that it was nothing but my infirmity that I gave way
to this temptation : but now I will stir up my droopiug heart,
and recall the thought of those many and ancient favours which
the bountiful hand ofiGod hath heaped upon me of old.

PSALM LXXVI. 4.— LXXVIII. .54. 213

13. "Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary."] — Thy counsels
and judgments, 0 God, are hidden from our reach : thou hast re
served them to thyself in the cabinet of heaven : it is fitter for us
to adore than search them.

16. " The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they
were afraid."] — The waters of the Red sea and of Jordan were
sensible of thy divine presence and pOAver, 0 Lord ; and, as if they
had been afraid of thee, they ran away, and divided themselves
into several courses.

17. " Thine arrows also went abroad."] — Thy lightnings were
shot forth of thy clouds, as so many arrows out of thy bow ; and
thine hailstones were as so many bullets sent out from thence
upon thine enemies.

19. " Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters."]
— Thou showedst thy power in going before thy people and mak
ing way for them through the midst of the sea; which is only
subject to thy sovereign command, and either stands or moves ac
cording to thy will.

LXXVIII. 9. " The children of Ephraim, being armed, and
carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle."] — Ephraim,
which was the chief of the ten revolted tribes of Israel, though
they were well armed, and furnished with those weapons which
might gall the enemy afar off, yet, as a punishment from God
upon them, they cowardly fled before the enemy, and gave a foul
example of base flight to the rest of their brethren.

10. " They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk
in his law."] — They, with their revolted associates, kept not the
covenant which God had made with them, but turned aside to
follow Jeroboam in his wicked idolatry ; forsaking the law and
temple of their God.

12. " In the field of Zoan."] — In the territories that belong to
Zoan, a chief city of Egypt, and the court of Pharaoh ; where
those miraculous works would be so much more noted.

25. " Man did eat angels' food."] — Man did eat of that bread
which descended from heaven, the glorious mansion of angels.

49. " By sending evil angels among them."] — By giving them
over into the power of evil angels, which are the executioners of
God's wrath ; so as by their hand, many of those judgments which
were inflicted upon Egypt were wrought.

54. " He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to
this mountain, which his right hand had purchased,"]— He brought

214 PARAPHRASE UPON

them into the possession of this promised land, where he hath
placed his sanctuary ; and to this holy hill of Sion, which he hath
chosen to that purpose, having cast out the Jebusites who formerly
possessed it by his mighty power.

60. " So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh," &c.] — So
that he forsook that tabernacle of his, which was pitched in Shiloh ;
and had no further respect to that chosen place.

61. "And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory
into the enemy's hand."]— And withal gave up his very ark, which
was the strength and glory of Israel ; and that sign of his pre
sence, whereby he manifested his strength and glory to Israel ;
that ark did he give up into the hands of the Philistines.

65. " Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a
mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine."] — Then the Lord,
who seemed to sleep while he winked at the captivity of the ark,
roused up himself to a revenge of these insolencies of the Philis
tines ; and laid about him, as some mighty giant, whose spirits are
cheered with abundance of wine, dealing judgments on all sides.

66. " And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts : he put
them to a perpetual reproach."] — And he smote the Philistines
with a grievous and shameful disease in their hinder parts ; even
with sore emerods, to their great pain and reproach.

67. " Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose
not the tribe of Ephraim :"] — Moreover he refused to dwell any
longer in Shiloh, which was in the tribe of Ephraim, the son of
Joseph, where his ark had long sojourned :

68. " But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he
loved."] — And made choice to fix himself at Jerusalem, within the
tribe of Judah ; even upon mount Sion, which he hath preferred
to all the earth.

LXXX. i. " Give ear, 0 Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest
Joseph like a flock ; thou that dwellest between the cherubims,
shine forth."] — 0 thou great Ruler and Protector of thy people
Israel ; thou, that both guidest and defendest the posterity of
Joseph, as a good shepherd doth his flock ; thou, that art gra
ciously wont to manifest thy presence in thy mercy-seat, which is
between the wings of the cherubims ; look down graciously upon
us, and show thy power in our deliverance.

2. " Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy
strength, and come and save us."] — Before those holy remainders
of the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, which still held

PSALM LXXV1II. 60.— LXXXI. 7. 215

close unto thee, notwithstanding the miserable defection of their
brethren, even before these thy faithful servants, stir up thy
strength, and work our deliverance.

8. " Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt : thou hast cast out
the heathen, and planted it,"]— Thy Church of Israel is some
generous and pleasant vine, which thou hast brought out of that
barren and hard soil of Egypt; and, having cast out the Canaan-
ites, which were the wild and natural plants of this place, hast
here set, in this good land of thy promise.

13. " The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild
beast of the field doth devour it."] — The heathenish tyrants, that
came up from Babylon and Assyria in open hostility to thy peo
ple, have made havock of this thy vineyard, having rooted up the
plants, and torn down the branches of it ; and their wicked com
plices and followers devour the grapes thereof.

15. "And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted,
and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.""] — Be gra
cious to thy whole Church, and especially to that thine anointed
servant, whom thou hast set over thy people, and advanced
for the defence of thine own cause, and the safeguard of thine in
heritance.

17. "Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon
the son of man whom- thou madest strong for thyself."] — Do thou
prosper and bless the great work of thy dear and powerful Mes
siah ; even that Son of man, that Son of God, that God and man,
whom thou hast set apart for this blessed work of mediation, and
furnished with power and graces fit for so glorious an employ
ment.

LXXXI. 3. "Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the
time appointed, on our solemn feast days."] — Do ye testify the in
ward joy of your hearts, by all kinds of melody, and especially by
the loud noise of trumpets ; such as wherewith ye celebrate the
feasts of the new moons, and other set and solemn festivities.

5. " This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went
out through the land of Egypt."] — This he ordained to be ob
served of all the tribes, and especially those that are the ring
leaders of the rest, even the posterity of Joseph ; when he led his
people along from the land of Egypt through the wilderness.

7. "I answered thee in the secret place of thunder.'1'] —I an
swered thee really out of the clouds ; from whence 1 sent thunder
and lightnings and hailstones upon thine enemies.

216 PARAPHRASE UPON

7. "I proved thee at the waters of Meribah."1] — I made proof
of thee, whether thou wouldest meekly and faithfully attend upon
my providence, and keep my commandments, even at those waters
which justly had their name from that strife which thou hadst with
my servant Moses.

16. " With honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.'1]
See Deut. xxxii. 13.

LXXXII. i . " God standeth in the congregation of the mighty ;
he judgeth among the gods."] — God is present in the counsels of
the great rulers of the earth ; he surveyeth all their actions and
consultations, and passeth judgment upon them accordingly.

5. "All the foundations of the earth are out of course."] — All
things are out of order, good laws are violated, authority is con
temned, men are lawless.

6. "I have said, Ye are gods ; and all of you are children of
the most High."] — I have said of the great rulers of Israel, Ye are
as the angels of God to the people ; yea, as God's own deputies
upon earth ; yea, as earthly images of God ; and ye are all in a
peculiar manner chosen and respected of the Almighty.

7. " But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes."]
— But ye shall die like other men ; there shall be no difference
betwixt you and those other heathen princes which know not God,
in respect of the necessity and ways and manner of your death
and dissolution.

LXXXIII. 3. " And consulted against thy hidden ones."] —
They have laid their heads together, and consulted how they
may root out thine holy seed ; those whom thou hast in thy secret
counsel chosen for thy own, and whom thou hast taken upon thee
to protect.

6. " The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab,
and the Hagarenes ;"] — Those of the posterity of Esau and Ish-
mael, and of Lot and Hagar, which aught, in regard of nearness
of blood, to favour and join with the other issue of Abraham and
Jacob, they do yet conspire altogether against them, &c.

7. " Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek ; the Philistines with the
inhabitants of Tyre :" &c.] —And are in confederacy with the other
neighbouring nations, which profess and exercise hostility against
thy people Israel.

9. "Do unto them as unto the Midianites ; as to Sisera/ as
to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:"] — Do thou utterly defeat and
destroy them, as thou didst the Midianites and their five kings;

PSALM LXXXI. 7.— LXXXIV. u. 217

as thou didst Sisera, the general of Jabin's host, and his stronw
army, at the brook and valley of Kison :

i o. " Which perished at Endor : they became as dung for the
earth.""] — Which perished in the plains of the city Endor, near
to that famous river of Kison ; and left their carcasses upon the
earth, for a prey to the fowls and compost to the soil.

ii. " Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zceb : yea, all
their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna."] — Make their princes
and nobles like unto those princes of the Midianites which Gideon
pursued and slew.

13. " 0 my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble be
fore the wind."] — Do thou whirl them away, and all their projects
and attempts, and scatter them as stubble before the wind.

LXXXIV. 3. "Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the
swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even
thine altars, 0 LORD of hosts."] — O God, how do I, in this my
exile, envy those little familiar birds, the sparrow and the swallow,
which are allowed to find out quiet nests for themselves and their
young, in the houses of men ; yea, near unto thy very altars, 0
Lord of hosts ; while I am driven away, and not suffered to enjoy
the benefit and comfort of thine house !

6. " Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well -,
the rain also filleth the pools."] — Who cannot be discouraged in
their journey towards the holy tabernacle, by all the difficulties of
the way ; for, though they pass through a dry and barren desert,
yet there doth their comfortable resolution make a well of refresh
ing, and afford them sweet and pleasant showers ; in that their
heart is possessed with the expectation of that blessing which they
shall be partakers of in that holy mountain.

7. "They go from strength to strength, every one of them in
Zion appeareth before God."] — And therefore they go on, cheer
fully gathering strength and courage in the way, until they come
into the presence of the Lord, in his temple, upon the hill of Zion.

i o. "1 had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God,
than to dwell in the tents of wickedness."] — I would rather choose to
be in the lowest and basest room within thy holy tabernacle, than to
be settled in whatsoever dignity out of the bounds of thy Church.

i J . " For the LORD God is a sun and shield."] — For the Lord
God is the author and fountain of all good and comfort that can
befall his children, and the protector and defender of them from
all those evils which they might be incident into.

218 PARAPHRASE UPON

LXXXV. 8. " He will speak peace unto his people, and to his
saints : but let them not turn again to folly."] — God will be ex
ceeding gracious, no doubt, unto his people, both in his remission
and blessings; but let them take heed that they keep steadfast
unto him ; and that they be not foolishly miscarried again into
idolatry, and other such grievous offences, as whereby they may
justly forfeit his favours.

10. "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and
peace have kissed each other.'"'] — The kingdom of Christ, under
the Gospel, shall be exceeding glorious and happy ; for therein
the mercy and truth of God will approve themselves to be fully
accorded : in that both God will be found true, in the making
good of his decreed threats of death to sinful man ; and also mer
ciful in saving mankind, lost by sin, through the blood of the
Redeemer : and in men answerably shall righteousness and peace
embrace each other ; for that upon this imputed righteousness of
Christ, joined with true inward sanctification, shall follow an happy
peace both with God and with our own consciences.

n. " Truth shall spring out of the earth ; and righteousness
shall look down from heaven."] — By the effects wrought upon
men here on earth shall God make good the truth of his pronises;
and righteousness, which is the free gift of God to men, shall
descend from above.

13. "Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in
the way of his steps."] — His servants shall walk before him in
holiness and righteousness, and shall by these graces be directed
in all the ways of his commandments.

LXXXVI. 8. "Among the gods there is none like unto thee,
O LORD."] — Amongst those that are falsely called gods, 0 Lord,
there is none that is like unto thee ; there is no less difference
than between that which is nothing and infinite.

17. " Show me a token for good ; that they which hate me may
see it, and be ashamed.1'1] — 0 Lord, do thou give some good
and sensible proof of thy merciful respect to me ; such as whereby
mine enemies may be convinced, and may with shame confess
their error, while they spitefully said, There is no help for him in
his God.

LXXXVII i. " His foundation is in the holy mountains."] —
God hath founded his city Jerusalem and his holy temple upon
the mountains which he hath chosen.

2. "The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the

PSALM LXXXV. 8.— LXXXVIII. 15. 219

dwellings of Jacob."] — The Lord taketh more pleasure to dwell
in his tabernacle and his temple on Zion hill than in all the rest
of the land of Judah or Israel.

4. " I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that
know me : behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia ; this man
was born there."] — I rejoice to see that the Church of God shall
not always be confined to these narrow bounds of Judea, but that
it shall extend itself to all nations : insomuch as I make account of
the most unlikely nations of Egypt and Babylon to be admitted
into the bosom thereof; and even amongst the most spiteful Phi
listines, and the Tyrians and Ethiopians, there shall be sons born
unto God.

5. " And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born
in her; and the highest himself shall establish her."] — And Zion,
the true spiritual Zion, shall be so enlarged, that it shall be said
of every professed Christian that he was born in her ; and God
shall so establish her, that the gates of hell shall not prevail
against her.

7. " All my springs are in thee."] — All the living waters of
true comfort, all graces, and all salvation, are to be found in thec
only (viz. the Church of God).

LXXXVIII. 5. " Free among the dead."] — I am as a man al
ready admitted into the society of dead men, free and perfectly
acquitted from all the cares and affairs of this life.

10. Shall the dead arise and praise thee?"] — Shall tlie dead
arise out of their graves, and live here among men, and celebrate
thy praises ?

1 2. " Shall thy wonders be known in the dark ? and thy
righteousness in the land of forgetfulness ?"] — Shall notice be
taken of thy wonderful works in the grave ? and shall the dead
carcasses, in that estate of death where all these earthly things
are forgotten, be sensible of thy righteous dealings with the
living ?

15. " I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up :
while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted."] — My trials and suf
ferings, as they have been grievous, and such as have brought me
to the very brink of the grave, so they have been also long and
tedious ; for even from my youth up hitherto have I been exer
cised with them ; and besides the sense of evils, the fear and
expectation of them hath been and is no small torment and dis
traction to me.

220 PARAPHRASE UPON

LXXXIX. 2. " For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever ;
thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens."] — After
all my troubles, I came to this resolution ; Thy mercy, 0 Lord, is
as some goodly structure, which thou wilt never leave to build up
(till thou have finished it) so firmly that it shall stand for ever ;
thy faithfulness in making good all thy promises is as surely
established as the very heavens themselves.

10. "Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces/"] — Thou hast over
thrown the proud Egyptian in the Red sea.

12. " The north and the south thou hast created them : Tabor
and Ilermon shall rejoice in thy name."] — Thou hast made all
the coasts of heaven : the north and the south are created by
thee : Tabor that is in the west, and Herinon towards the east,
do rejoice in thee, and acknowledge thy power.

15. " Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound."] —
Blessed are the people whose ears are inured unto the cheerfnl
sound of the sacreJ trumpets of God in their solemn feasts and
sacrifices.

19. " Then thou spakest in vision to thy Holy One, and saidst,
I have laid help upon one that is mighty," &c.] — Thou spakest
by way of vision to thine holy prophet Samuel, and after him to
Nathan thy prophet, and saidst, I have ordained to give help
and victory unto my people by my strong and mighty champion
David.

25. "I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in
the rivers."] — I will establish his rule over those which dwell on the
sea coast, and from the river Eu >hrates to the land of the Philis
tines ; so as both the Red sea, and the Mediterranean, together
with the rivers of Euphrates, Jordan, and the rest within that
compass, shall be swayed by his sceptre.

27. "Also I will make him wy firstborn, higher than the kings
of the earth."] — As he whom thou, 0 David and Solomon, dost
represent as types of him to come is the firstborn of every crea
ture, and in all things hath the preeminence ; so thou, in figure of
him, shalt be advanced to the honour of the highest prince upon
earth, having therein the true privilege of primogeniture.

33. "Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take
from him," &c.] See 2 Sam. vii. 14.

$6 > 37- " His throne shall be as the sun before me. It shall be
established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in
heaven/'] —The spiritual government of Christ the Son of David,

PSALM LXXXIX. 2.— XCI. 7. 221

shall continue as firm and steadfast as the sun and moon, and
those other heavenly bodies, which are the faithful witnesses of
God's unfailable power and providence.

39. " Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant ; thou
hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground"]— But now,
as if thou meantest to reverse and recant that word of thine, and
to frustrate the covenant with thine Anointed, thou hast for the
time suffered his crown to be pulled off his head and to be cast
upon the ground, and his government to be openly despised.

XC. 1 1. " Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even accord
ing to thy fear, so is thy wrath."] — 0 Lord, who is able conceive
how fearful a thing thine anger is ? and yet, it is fit to tremble at
the conceit thereof; for, according as men do more or less tremble
at thy judgments, so dost thou more or less execute them.

13. " Let it repent thee concerning thy servants."] — Call back
those evils which are threatened, and, as it were, gone out against
thy servants ; and do, as we men are wont, when we repent of our
actions, forbear to punish us thy servants any more.

XCI. i. " He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."] — He that puts
himself under the protection of the Almighty shall be sure to be
safely preserved under the shadow of his wings.

3. "Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler
and from the noisome pestilence."] — He shall deliver thee from
those secret dangers, which the craft of devils or men has devised
to entangle thee in, and from the fearful and noisome contagion of
the pestilence.

5. " Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night ; nor for
the arrow that flieth by day ;"]— Thou shalt be freed from the
fear of either secret or open evils, whether by day or by night,
inward or outward ; from all the violent machinations of enemies;
and from the immediate judgments of God, that strike swiftly and
insensibly :

6. "Nor for the pestilence that walkcth in darkness; nor for
the destruction that wasteth at noonday."] — Thou shalt not be
afraid of that plague of pestilence that infecteth secretly, and
spreadeth insensibly, and yet destroyeth openly, and, where it
rageth, leaves the footsteps of death to be lamentably viewed
at midday.

7. " A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy
right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee."]— In a common mor-

222 PARAPHRASE UPON

tality, God shall make a difference betwixt his own and others :
for his own, save where and when he sees it best for them to suffer
and hath decreed their advantage by the stroke, he shall save
and preserve them, so as while many thousands fall on each hand
of them, yet they shall be free.

ii. " For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep
thee in all thy ways."] — So great is his care of the good of his chil
dren, that, besides his own immediate protection, he shall give charge
to his most glorious creatures, the angels of heaven, and that not to
one, but to many of them, to attend upon their persons and ways.

13. "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young
lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under foot."] — Thou shalt
be delivered from the danger and annoyance of whatsoever crea
tures may be hnrtful unto thee, whether by their violence or by
their venom ; so as the most fierce or the most poisonous shall be
trampled upon by thee without harm.

XCII. 13. " Those that be planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God."] — Those that are truly
planted in God's Church, being rooted in a lively and steadfast
faith, shall flourish and spread forth into a fruitful profession, to
the glory of their God, and benefit of others, and their own hap
piness.

XCIII. 3. "The floods have lifted up, 0 LORD, the floods have
lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves."] — The great
waters roar loud ; and the combined multitude of the enemies of
thy Church, O Lord, make great noises of threats, and furious
attempts against thee and thy people.

4. " The LORD on high is mightier,'" &c.] — But the Lord on
high can allay and quiet them at pleasure.

XCIV. 19. "In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy
comforts delight my soul."] — In the multitude of the sad and per
plexed thoughts of my heart, the comforts of thy word and Spirit
have cheered up my soul.

20. " Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee,
which frameth mischief by a law?"] — Wilt thou, 0 Lord, have
any thing to do with, or give any supportation to, the tyrannical
government of wicked persecutors, which do enact sin and mischief,
countenancing it both by their example and authority ? No, thou
hatest them and their devilish courses.

XCVII. 2. " Clouds and darkness are round about him."] See
2 Sam. xxii. 12.

PSALM XCI. 11.— XCIX. 8.

3,4. "A fire goeth before him. His lightnings enlightened
the world."] See 2 Sam. xxii. 9, 13, 14.

1 1. "Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the up
right in heart."] — There is much joy and happiness laid up in
store for the godly man, howsoever it do not yet make any show
to carnal minds : the seed of their comfort lies under the clods of
affliction for the time ; hut it shall surely sprout out, and fill their
hearts, when their harvest comes, with gladness.

XCIX. i. "The LORD reigneth; let the people tremble: he
sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth" &c.] — The Lord of
heaven ruleth and defendeth his Church, and executes judgments
upon the enemies of it ; let all the people of the world therefore,
in an humble fear, submit themselves to him : he mam'festeth his
presence upon his mercyseat between the cherubims; let the
earth therefore tremble at his majesty, and be afraid to oppose
him and his Church.

5. "And worship at his footstool."] — Worship him, and bow
down upon the pavement of his sanctuary.

6. "Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among
them that call upon his name ; they called upon the LORD, and
he answered them."] — How gracious respect God gives to his
faithful ones doth well appear in those proofs of his merciful au
dience which he gave to Moses and Aaron among the prime rulers
and peers of his Church, and to Samuel amongst his prophets ; all
which were intercessors for God's people upon many occasions, and
were heard so far as to prevail for them.

CI. i . " I will sing of mercy and judgment : unto thee, 0 LORD,
will I sing."] — 0 Lord, I will celebrate both thy mercy in blessing
and forgiving thy people, and thy judgment in avenging thine
enemies ; and I will withal imitate thee in both, labouring to rule
thy people both wisely and justly.

2. " I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. 0 when
wilt thou come unto me ? I will walk within my house with a per
fect heart."] — I have vowed unto myself a holy and strict obedi
ence and wise carriage before thee in all my actions, that when
thou shalt come to take an account of me, as I do unfeignedly
desire thou shouldest, I may be well approved for my true sin
cerity of heart and life in thy presence.

8. " I will early destroy all the wicked of the land ; that I may
cut off all wicked doers from the city of the LORD."]— I will
roundly set myself to purge the land of all notorious offenders,

224 PARAPHRASE UPON

and will endeavour that the Church of God may be freed from
those wicked ones which are a burden and a slander unto it.

CII. 3. " My bones are burned as an hearth."] — My very bones
are dried up with sorrow, and are burnt black therewith, as an
hearth is with the fire.

4. " So that I forget to eat my bread."] — My heart is so wholly
taken up with sorrow that I cannot think of any earthly comforts ;
no, not so much as of my necessary sustenance.

6. " I am like a pelican of the wilderness : I am like an owl of
the desert."] — I am left and forsaken of all, and live like one of
those solitary and dismal birds which shriek out their mournful
notes in a desert wilderness, where either none heareth them, or
those that do hear them hate their noise, as portending evil.

9. "For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink
with weeping."] — As I have lain grovelling upon the earth in my
sorrow, I have taken no sustenance at all, except I have perhaps
licked up the dust where I lay, and drunk in my tears instead of
other liquors.

14. "For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour
the dust thereof."] — For howsoever the glory of thy temple is
utterly defaced, yet thy servants love the very rubbish of those
walls, and favour the very dust into which it is mouldered.

26, 27. "As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall
be changed : but thou art the same."] — 0 God, the very heavens
themselves, through our sin, are made subject to corruption ; they
shall be both folded up once as a garment ; and changed, as an
old garment is changed for a new ; so as these heavens shall be
once other than they are : only thou art eternally immutable.

CIII. 5. "Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that
thy youth is renewed like the eagle's."] — Who abundantly fur-
nisheth thee with all good things, and reviveth thee when thou
droopest under thy afflictions ; as the eagle, by casting her feathers
and her beak, seems to receive a new youthfulness.

CIV. 2. " Who coverest thy self \\\i\\ light as with a garment."] —
Who art kept from all mortal eyes by that inaccessible light
wherein thou dwellest above :

3. " Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters : who
maketh the clouds his chariot : who walketh upon the wings of the
wind:"] — Who layeth the floor of his upper loft, which is the
higher region of the air, in the clouds ; on which, as on some
chariot, he seemeth to ride, in that he directs the uncertain mo-

PSALM CII. 3.— CIV. 30. 225

tion thereof; and so disposeth of the winds, as ordering their
quick and unsteady agitations.

4. "Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming
fire."] — Who maketh those glorious spirits of heaven his messen
gers, which he sends on his holy errands down into the world ;
and causeth these celestial ministers of his to appear in the forms
of fire, and maketh both the winds and fire to execute those offices
of revenge or preservation which he committeth unto them.

6. " Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment."] — In
the first creation, thou hadst covered all the face of that which
we now call earth, with the waters, as with a garment that en
wrapped it.

8. " They go up by the mountains (or, the mountains ascend,
the valleys descend), unto the place which thou hast founded for
them."] — Upon thy command, the waters sunk down into one
place, so as the hills (thereupon appearing) seemed to ascend, and
the valleys to go down into their settled hollowness : thither, by
thy powerful appointment, did the waters gather themselves, and
there abide.

10. " He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among
the hills."] — It is he that causeth the springs to break forth into
large rivers, which find passage in the lower plains betwixt the
hills.

13. "He watereth the hills from his chambers."] — Out of the
chambers of the clouds he sendeth rain to water the dry and
barren hills.

16. " The trees of the LORD are full of sap ; the cedars of Le
banon, which he hath planted."] — Those trees, which the Lord
hath caused to grow, even those goodly cedars which he set in
Lebanon, are full of sap and thriving moisture, so that they grow
tall and spreading.

1 8. "The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and,"
&c.] — He hath given to every creature a several disposition, and
a several way and means of life, and hath fitted them with places
meet for their disposition ; so as the hills are the refuge for the
wild goats, which to other creatures were inaccessible, &c.

21. "And seek their meat from God."] — And seek to satisfy
their hunger with that prey which the providence of God hath
ordained for them, without their knowledge and expectation.

30. " Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created : and thou
renewest the face of the earth."]— That spirit of thine which

BP. HALL, VOL. III. Q

PARAPHRASE UPON

moved at the first upon the face of the waters, is still sent forth
by thee, for the renewing of those several creatures whose daily
mortality requires the supply of a continual succession and propa
gation.

32. " He toucheth the hills, and they smoke."] — If he do but
touch the hills, they smoke for fear of his mighty power, which
can shake or remove them at pleasure.

CV. 15. " Touch riot mine anointed."] — Do not dare to lay
hands upon those whom I have peculiarly consecrated to myself
and my service.

1 6. " He brake the whole staff of bread."] — He caused a great
scarcity of bread, whereby the life of man is upheld and main
tained.

28. " He sent darkness, and made it dark ; and they rebelled
not against his word/'] — He commanded a palpable darkness to
spread itself over the whole land of Egypt ; and as Moses and
Aaron obeyed in giving the command, so all the creatures yielded
their willing obedience to it.

CVI. 15. " He gave them their request ; but sent leanness into
their soul.1'1] — He gave them abundance of food, according to their
desire, but withal he sauced it with judgment ; causing it not to
prosper with them ; so as they did eat, but did not thrive withal.

39. "And went a whoring with their own inventions."] — They
were miscarried into spiritual fornication, committing folly with
those idols and false gods which they had vainly devised to them
selves.

CVI I. 7. " He led them forth by the right way, that they might
go to a city of habitation.1'1] — He led them by a pillar of cloud and
fire till he brought them into the cities of Canaan, which he had
prepared for their habitation.

1 6. " He hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of
iron in sunder."] — He hath wrought out their freedom against all
difficulties ; and hath removed all the strongest hinderances of their
peaceable settling in the land of promise.

CVIII. i. " 0 God, my heart is fixed," &c.] See Ps. Ivii. 7.

7—9- " God hath spoken in his holiness ; I will divide Shechem,"
&c.] See Psalm Ix. 6. and for this whole Psalm.

CIX. 6. " Set thou a wicked man over him : and let Satan
stand at his right hand."] — Give him over into the rule and com
mand of a wicked tyrant, which taketh pleasure in blood ; and let
his spiritual estate be yet worse : let Satan, the great enemy

PSALM CIV. 32.— CX. 4.

of mankind, have full advantage against him, and victory over
him.

1 8. " As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his gar
ment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into
his bones."] — As it was his common use and practice to curse
others, so let his curses return upon himself; and take so full
possession of him, as not only to enter into his bowels, but to soak
into his very bones.

23. '•' I am tossed up and down as the locust."] — I am tossed
up and down by the violent persecution of my enemy, as a locust
is tossed with the wind : which is driven with every blast, here
and there, where it would not, and is not suffered to rest any
where.

CX. i . " The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right
hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool."] — God the Father,
in his eternal counsel, said unto his Son my Lord and Saviour,
Take thou all power and authority, as the only Mediator and true
King of my Church, until I shall have utterly subdued all those
that dare rise up against thee ; then do thou deliver up this royal
state and kingdom of thy Mediatorship.

2. " The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion :
rule thou in the midst of thine enemies."] — The Lord shall send
the sceptre of thy power, O Saviour, from out of Zion and Jeru
salem, where thou first manifestedst thy glory into all the coasts of
the earth ; in that all the nations of the world shall be subject
unto thy spiritual government : rule thou in the midst of those
which are yet thy professed enemies.

3. " Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the
beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning : thou hast the
dew of thy youth."] — Thy people shall willingly present them
selves unto thee in thy holy Church in that day, when thy Gospel
shall be powerfully preached unto»them; even from the utmost
coasts of the world : and as the dew falls sweetly and plentifully
from the womb of the morning, so shall thine holy and vigorous
professors abundantly come forth from thee, and show themselves
upon the face of the earth.

4. " Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchize-
dek."] — Thy priesthood is everlasting, not temporary as the Le-
vitical : in thy person and office is and shall be fulfilled that which
was figured in the royal priesthood, person, and name of Melchi-
zedek, king of Salem, the king of righteousness and peace.

228 PARAPHRASE UPON

6. " He shall wound the heads over many countries."] — He
shall bring down and trample under foot Satan and all his power
ful instruments, which labour to oppose his sovereignty and rule
in the Church.

7. " He shall drink of the brook in the way : therefore shall
he lift up the head."] — And in the heat of pursuit of his chased
enemies, he shall so hasten, that he shall only content himself to
drink of the brook that runs in the way ; and shall speedily lift up
his head to follow his victory, which he shall gloriously achieve.

CXI. 2. " The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all
them that have pleasure therein."] — The works of the Lord are
great ; which are diligently searched and inquired after, and pro
fitably discovered by those his wise and faithful servants who take
pleasure both to note and publish them.

10. " The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom : a good
understanding have all they that do his commandments."^ — The
fear of the Lord is the chief point of all true wisdom ; and those
men have a right understanding of what is best for themselves,
that give themselves wholly to the careful keeping of his com
mandments.

CXII. 4. " Unto the upright there ariseth light in the dark
ness."] — Unto those that are true of heart God raiseth the light
of comfort in the midst of the darkness of tribulation.

9. " His righteousness endureth for ever ; his horn shall be
exalted with honour."] — The merciful man shall find the fruit of
this his charity and holy beneficence for ever ; and God shall give
him increase of true honour, and abundantly reward his liberality.

CXIV. 2. " Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion."]
— The seed of Israel, and among them, in special, the tribe of
Judah, were his peculiar people over which he reigned, and in
whom he was honoured and sanctified.

3. " The sea saw it, and fled : Jordan was driven back."] — The
Red sea, as acknowledging the powerful hand of God for the pro
tection and safety of his people, gave way unto their passage ; and
Jordan, in the shutting up of their journey, dividing his waves, ran
back to give them way through his channels.

4. " The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like
lambs."] — The great mountains of the wilderness shook and were
moved sensibly at his terrible presence, when he delivered the law
to his people.

CXVI. 3. " The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains

PSALM CX. 6.— CX1X. i. 229

of hell gat hold upon me."] — I was even in the very pangs of
death, and brought down to the very brim of the grave, and was,
as it were, given up unto the estate of death.

n. "I said in my haste, All men are liars/'] — I said, in the
extremity of my sudden fear and perplexity, that all men are
liars; that even those prophets which had foretold me the cer
tainty of my succession to the kingdom of Israel were hut de
ceivers, and no credit was to be given to their prediction.

13. "I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name
of the LORD."] — I will in my thankful peace offerings take up the
cup of blessing, and joyfully acknowledge the salvation which God
hath wrought for me, and praise his name for my so gracious
deliverance.

15. " Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his
saints."] — The Lord makes high account of the life of his holy
ones, so as he will not suffer them to miscarry, but will rescue them
from death, and disappoint the attempts of their enemies.

OX VIII. 12. "They compassed me about like bees, they are
quenched as the fire of thorns."] — Like as the bees fly angrily
about the man that stirs their hive, and threat their stings against
him, so do mine enemies against me ; but they shall soon be stilled
and mastered : they send forth a great flame of menaces and op
positions, but it shall be like a fire of thorns, soon out.

22. " The stone ivhicli the builders refused is become the head
stone of the corner."] — The mutinous people have spitefully re
jected the government of their Messiah, and of David his type
and predecessor ; but now, behold, by the holy and wise ordina
tion of God, either and both of them are appointed for the chief
stay of his people ; so as the whole fabric of the Church is coupled
together, and resteth upon the foundation of that Christ whom
they have wickedly refused.

27. " God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light : bind the
sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar."] — God is
the Lord which hath comforted us in our extremities ; bring ye
therefore abundance of sacrifices before him, and tie them with
cords ready for their oblation, so thick as they can stand each by
other, till they come up to the very horns of the altar.

CXIX. i. " Blessed are the undetiled in the way, who walk in
the law of the LORD."] — Blessed are they whose hearts are up
right with God, and who live conscionably according to the law of
the Lord.

230 PARAPHRASE UPON

3. "They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways/'] —
They make not a trade of any known and willing sin ; but frame
themselves to walk in the ways which he hath chalked forth unto
them.

25. " My soul cleaveth unto the dust : quicken thou me."] — I
am exceeding low brought by thine afflicting hand; O do thou
raise me, and restore comfort unto me, as thou hast graciously
promised.

26. " I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me."] — I
have laid open my whole estate before thee, and thou gavest a
merciful respect to me.

37. " Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity."] — 0 let
not mine eye betray my heart unto vanity : let me not so see that
I be transported with any of these earthly objects [from my per
fect love of thee, and desire of heavenly things.

43. " And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth ;
for I have hoped in thy judgments."] — O God, continue, I be
seech thee, as true faith in my heart, so the profession of thy
truth in my mouth ; for 1 have still hoped, and so shall do, in thy
righteous promises ; who wilt graciously accept and reward both
the belief of the heart and confession of the mouth.

45. "I will walk at liberty : for I seek thy precepts."] — I will
walk free from all fears and distractive cares ; for my heart tells
me that I do sincerely endeavour to keep thy law.

48. " My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments."]—
I will earnestly employ myself and all my actions to the perform
ing of what thou commandest me.

53. "Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that
forsake thy law."J — I am deeply afflicted in myself to see the out
rages and rebellious courses of wicked men, and am driven to great
extremity by their cruel attempts against me.

6 1. "The bands of the wicked have robbed me."] — Whole
troops of wicked men have conspired to undo me, and to despoil
me of my innocence.

81. "My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy
word."] — My soul is overcome and languisheth with a longing de
sire of thy salvation ; yet still I am sustained by an assured hope
of thy merciful performances.

82. " Mine eyes fail for thy word."] — I have so long and ear
nestly looked for the accomplishment of thy promises, that I can
scarce hold open mine eyes any longer,

PSALM CXIX. 3.— CXX. 5. 231

83. "I am become like a bottle in the smoke."] — I am dried
up, and shrunk, and deformed, and wrinkled with sorrow, even as
a bottle that is hanged up in the smoke.

96. " I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment
is exceeding broad."] — There is no earthly thing, be it never so
excellent, but I have observed it subject to change and corruption;
but thy law, 0 Lord, is of infinite perfection, both for the wisdom
and justice of it, as also for the eternal continuance of it.

109. "My soul is continually in my hand."] — O Lord, I am
exposed to continual danger of my life: I am ready to have it taken
from me upon all occasions.

1 18. " Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy
statutes: for their deceit is falsehood."] — Thou hast taken ven
geance of wilful sinners and perverse hypocrites ; for their deceit,
wherewith they thought to beguile the eyes of men, doth but de
ceive themselves.

122. "Be surety for thy servant for good."] — O Lord, do thou
take my cause upon thee, and stand out for the protection of mine
innocence.

123. " Mine eyes fail."] See ver. 81 and 8i.

1 26. " It is time for thee, LORD, to work : for they have made
void thy law."] — It is high time for thee, O Lord, to show thy
detestation of the lewd courses of men, by executing due judg
ments upon them ; for they have so slighted thy law as if it were
to no purpose.

130. " The entrance of thy words giveth light."] — There is so
clear a light in thy word, 0 God, that upon the first sight thereof
it gives great knowledge and comfort to the beholder.

139. " My zeal hath consumed me."] See verse 53.

148. " Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that 1 might me
ditate in thy word."]— Late at night, and early in the morning,
did I give myself to the meditation in thy word.

164. " Seven times a day do I praise thee."] — Many a time in
the day do I lift up my soul unto thee, and praise thy name in my
continual ejaculations.

CXX. 4. " Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper."]
—Surely the plagues of God shall be sent as so many arrows,
singeing into thy bosom ; and his wrath shall wax hot and endure
eternally upon thee.

5. " Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the
tents of Kedar!"]— Woe is me, that 1 am forced to live amongst

232 PARAPHRASE UPON

savage and barbarous men, that have neither fear of God nor re
gard of humanity.

CXXT. 6. " The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon
by night.'1''] — None of all the creatures shall be hurtful unto thee:
the sun shall not offend thee with his scorching heat, nor the
moon with her cold and raw nightly vapours.

CXXII. 3. " Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact to
gether."] — Jerusalem is stately built for the outward fabric in
type of the glorious frame of God's Church, and is strongly and
unanimously compacted together ; not divided into several towns
and religions, as it was, but once perfectly united both for structure
and for concord of heart and affections.

5. " There are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house
of David."] — There do yet remain the thrones of judgment of the
kings of Judah and Israel, the royal seat of the posterity of king
David, where he and his sat to judge and govern their people.

CXX1V. 5. " The proud waters had gone over our soul."] —
Our swelling and raging enemies had utterly overthrown us, and
brought us to nothing.

CXXV. 3. " The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot
of the righteous ; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto
iniquity."] — The cruel oppression and tyranny of wicked men shall
not be suffered to prevail long against the righteous, lest they
should be too much discouraged, and drawn into a weak distrust.

CXXVI. i . " We were like them that dream."] — We were so
overjoyed with the blessing, that we could scarce assure ourselves
whether we might believe that we were indeed so happy, or whe
ther it were a pleasing dream.

4. " Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the
south."] — 0 Lord, do thou so refresh us with a full accomplish
ment of our return from this captivity, as if thou shouldst cause
some comfortable streams to flow through a dry southern desert,
for the pleasure of the passengers.

6. " He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed,
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves
with him."] — As yet the return from the captivity is not perfect;
and we that are returned are subject to much oppression and dan
ger from our heathen persecutors ; but take comfort to yourselves,
O ye people of God ; for howsoever ye are now distressed, and
have a wet seed-time, yet doubtless ye shall be at last abundantly
comforted, and reap the fruit of your patient expectation.

PSALM CXX1. 6.— CXXXVII. 7. 233

CXXVII. 2. " For so he giveth his beloved sleep."]— Whereas
worldly minded men spend themselves in carking and toiling, and
yet prosper not in their designs ; God will so bless his faithful
ones, that they shall without these turmoils and perplexities enjoy
themselves and the comforts bestowed on them.

5. " They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the
enemies in the gate."] — They have those who shall stand by them,
and be ready to maintain their cause in all quarrels, whether of
law or violence.

CXX1X. 3. "The plowers plowed upon my back: they made
long their furrows."] — They have oppressed me with many and
intolerable injuries, and exercised their utmost spite upon me.

CXXX. 6. "My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they
that watch for the morning."] — My soul waiteth for the Lord,
and longs for his comfortable presence, more than the watchman
that is forced to wake the whole night waiteth for the break of
day, that he may be discharged.

CXXXII. 6. " Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah : we found it in
the fields of the wood."] — Lo, we heard of thine ark, 0 Lord,
that it was for many years pitched in Shiloh, within the tribe of
Ephraim ; and we found it, after the return from the Philistines,
long fixed in the woody country of Kirjath-jearim.

1 6. "I will also clothe her priests with salvation."] — I will spread
my protection and defence over her priests which are consecrated
to me.

17. "I will make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained
a lamp for mine anointed."] — I will enlarge the power and glory
of the royal issue of king David ; and will cause a glorious suc
cessor to arise out of the loins of mine anointed.

CXXXIII. 3. " As the dew of Herrnon, and as the dew that de
scended upon the mountains of Zion : for there the LORD commanded
the blessing, even life for evermore."] — It is as the comfortable dew
that falls upon and from the fruitful mountain of Hermon into the
fields of Bashan, or the dew that falls upon the mountain of Zion ;
for where there is peace and concord, there God gives abundance
of blessings, both for the present and for the future life which is
eternal.

CXXXVII. 7. "Remember, O LORD, the childrem of Edom in
the day of Jerusalem ; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foun
dation thereof."] — Remember, O Lord, the unkind and cruel poste
rity of Esau, how spitefully they behaved themselves in the day

234 PARAPHRASE UPON

when Jerusalem was taken and sacked ; how they insulted, how
they encouraged our enemies to rase and demolish it even to the
very ground.

8. "O daughter of Bahylon, who art to be destroyed; happy
shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us/1] — 0 thou
Babylon, who, as thou hast destroyed this our goodly city, so
thyself also art ordained to destruction ; it shall be an happy work
in those that shall have an hand in thy ruin, to return thine own
cruel measure back unto thee.

CXXXVIII. i . "Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee."]—
Even publicly, in the holy place, in thy presence, and the presence
of thy blessed angels who are there represented, and before the
great peers of Israel, will I sing praise unto thee.

5. " Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD."] — They
shall celebrate and set forth all the wondrous works that thou hast
wrought, and all the courses that thou hast taken with them : and
tell what thou hast done, and what thou hast enjoined them to do.

6. "But the proud he knoweth afar off."] — He so knows the
proud, that he will come near them no way but in judgment ; and
to that he hath long since designed them.

CXXXIX. 5. " Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid
thine hand upon me."] — 0 Lord, thy presence and almighty power
encompasseth me on all sides, and thou hast laid hold on me by
thy hand, so as there is no starting from thee.

6. " Such knowledge is too wonderful for rne."] — The know
ledge of thy great and glorious majesty and infiniteness. 0 Lord,
is utterly past all human comprehension.

9. " If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the ut
termost parts of the sea."] — If I could fly as swift as the day, and
remove myself into the utmost coasts of the world.

14. "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made."] — If there were no other workmanship of thine but that
which thou hast showed in framing the body and inspiring the
soul of man ; 0 God, I can never praise and admire thee enough
for this only work of thine.

15. "My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in
secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth."] —
Thine eye and thine hand was upon that original matter whereof
I was framed secretly in the womb of my mother : thou sawest
all the marvellous proceedings of my conception and formation
here below.

PSALM CXXXVJI. 8.— CXLI. 7. 23-5

1 6. "And in thy book all my members were written, ivkich in
continuance were fashioned, when as yet there ivas none of
them/'] — Thou takest notice and keepest record of all the mem
bers of this body of mine which thou hast made ; which, by several
degrees were to be fashioned in the womb : thou knewest, and
in thy eternal decree hadst ordained them, when as yet they had
no being.

17. "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, 0 God!
how great is the sum of them!"] — How wonderfully and incon
ceivably gracious are thy purposes towards me, 0 Lord ! and
how impossible is it for me to express the specialties of thy bounty
unto me !

CXL. 9. "Let the mischief of their own lips cover them."] —
Let that mischief which the lips of wicked men have plotted, and
uttered, and wished against me, befall unto themselves, and so in-
wrap them that they may not be able to extricate themselves.

10. "Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into
the fire."] — Let all manner of judgments light upon them : let it
not be enough that fire falls down upon them, but let them be
cast down into the fire.

CXLI. 2. " Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense ;
and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.""] — Let my
prayer ascend up unto thee with so sweet acceptation, as that fra
grant incense of the sanctuary which is every morning offered up
unto thee ; and let my supplication be as pleasing to thee as that
prescribed meat-offering which is every evening made unto thee.

5. " Let the righteous smite me ; it shall be a kindness : and
let him reprove me ; it shall be an excellent oil, ivhich shall not
break my head : for yet my prayer also shall be in their cala
mities."] — O God, let good men reprove me ; this shall be a spe
cial favour and blessing to me, which, instead of hurt, shall be
sovereign and profitable unto me : this shall not be as a stone to
break my head, but as sweet oil to refresh and supple it, which I
shall be ready to repay unto them in the day of their calamity.

6. " When their judges are overthrown in stony places, they
shall hear ray words; for they are sweet."] — These men, when
they shall see the judgments of God executed upon their rulers
and commanders who set them on work, shall then find savour in
the day of affliction, in my Avords, and shall acknowledge the
fidelity and good purpose thereof.

7. " Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one

236 PARAPHRASE UPON

cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth .""] — Our bones lie scat
tered upon the mouth of the grave through their cruelty, as chips
are wont to lie scattered about when a man heweth wood.

CXLII. 7. "The righteous shall compass me about.1'']— The
godly men shall come about me to see and applaud thy gracious
deliverances of me, and to help me to praise thy mercy.

CXLIII. 5. " I remember the days of old."] — I call to remem
brance thy ancient mercies to me, and from thence fetch assurance
of thy present goodness.

7. " Lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit."] —
Lest I be utterly comfortless, as those that are forsaken of all hopes
and possibilities of life, and have yielded themselves over to the
grave.

CXLIV. 6. " Cast forth lightning, and scatter them : shoot out
thine arrows, and destroy them."] — 0 God, do thou take this re
venge into thine own immediate hand : do thou smite them with
thy thunderbolt or lightning from heaven: let those fiery darts
of thine strike them through.

12." That our daughters may be as corner stones, polished
after the similitude of a palace."] — That our daughters may be
both goodly and fruitful, like unto the corner stones of a royal
building, upon which the structure of a fair and lasting pile may
be raised.

14. "That there be no breaking in, nor going out; no com
plaining in our streets."] — That there be no sacking of our cities,
no carrying away into captivity, no shrieking and outcries at the
violence of an enemy raging in our streets.

CXLV. 14. " And raiseth up all those that be bowed down."] —
Those that stoop under their afflictions and are depressed to the
earth, he raiseth up with seasonable comfort.

CXLVII. 4. " He telleth the number of the stars ; he calleth
them all by their names."] — He well knoweth the number of the
stars which he hath created, and causeth them in their seasons so
to arise as if he called them up by their several names.

13. "He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates."] — It is he
that makes thy cities strong and invincible.

15. " He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth : his word
runneth very swiftly."] —Whatsoever his pleasure is concerning his
creatures upon earth, it is speedily and effectually accomplished.

1 8. " He causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow."] — He
causeth a moist and thawing wind to blow, and then the waters,

PSALM CXLII. 7.— PROVERBS I. 2. 237

which were bound up with a firm ice, do return to their former
flowing.

CXLVIII. 6. " He hath made a decree which shall not pass."]
— He hath, by his eternal decree, ordered the motions and effects
of these supernal creatures, which cannot be altered or eluded.

7. "Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all
deeps."] — Let the great God, the creator and preserver of all
things, have glory from all his wonderful works ; let them show
forth his mighty power and wisdom in creating and disposing < f
them, even from this inferior globe of the earth and sea: let
God be magnified in those huge and fearful whales and sea-
dragons which he hath made, and in those vast and deep waters
wherein he hath placed them.

CXLIX. 4. " He will beautify the meek with salvation."] —
Those that meekly depend upon him, he will make glorious ; both
with his rich blessings here, and with salvation hereafter.

6. "And a twoedged sword in their hand."] — Let that sword
of the Spirit, even that twoedged sword, which divideth the
hearts and reins, the word of truth, be in the mouths and hands
of his holy ones.

8. " To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with
fetters of iron."] — Which powerful word of his, in the mouths of
his faithful messengers, shall be able to hamper and restrain the
most furious tyrants of the earth ; and bring the great potentates
of the world in humble subjection to the Gospel of peace.

9. " To execute upon them the judgment written : this honour
have all his saints."] — And, upon their perverseness and obstinate
continuance in their sins, to denounce against them those judg
ments which are written in the book of God. Behold then, what
honour God hath put upon his saints, to be so powerful agents
both in mercy and judgments.

CL. 6. " Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD."] —
Let every creature that liveth and breatheth upon the earth
praise the name of the Lord, and in his kind yield glory to his
Creator.

PROVERBS.

Li. "The proverbs of Solomon."] — The grave, wise, pro
verbial sentences of Solomon.

2. " To know wisdom and instruction."] — The use whereof is,
to give true, moral, and spiritual wisdom and instruction to those
that do carefully read or hear them.

238 PARAPHRASE UPON

8. " Forsake not the law of thy mother."] — Do not take ad
vantage bv the weakness of that sex to think it safe for thee

tj

to slight that charge which thy mother shall lay upon thee.

1 7. " Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.'1'']
— Well might the foolish bird be warned and kept off by the sight
of the net which is spread for her ; but she, being intent upon
her food, minds not her danger, and so is heedlessly caught : so
shall it be with thee, my son, if thou, in a desire of wicked gain,
shalt suffer thyself to be enticed by lewd men, &c.

1 8. " And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily
for their own lives.""] — While they think they lay wait for the
blood of others, alas ! they lay wait for their OAVII, and go closely
to work to betray and destroy their own souls.

19." Gain ; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof."]
— Evil gain brings destruction upon the getter of it ; so as he
loseth himself, while he vainly thinks to win these outward
things.

20. " Wisdom crieth without ; she uttereth her voice in the
streets."] — He that is the eternal and uncreated Wisdom of the
Father useth all means to draw men unto God ; both by his
works and by his word he iuviteth all men to the knowledge and
love of the truth.

23. " I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known
my words unto you."] — I offer unto you, both my word out
wardly to your ears, and a plentiful measure of my Spirit in
wardly to your hearts, to make that word effectual unto you.

2,6. "I also will laugh at your calamity."] — As you have
slighted and disregarded me and my word, so will I you in the
day of your extremity : I will not care that you are plagued ;
yea, it shall be a pleasure to me to see your just smart.

32. "The prosperity of fool* shall destroy them."] — Foolish
sinners are hardened in their wicked courses by the sense of their
continuing prosperity, and are thereupon carried on to their de
struction.

II. 7. "He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous."] — To
those that are true and upright of heart he will in his good time
reveal true and saving knowledge, and that sound spiritual wis
dom which shall make them eternally happy.

19. "None that go unto her return again, neither take they
hold of the paths of life."]— So powerful are her enticements,
and her infection so deadly, that it is a great wonder if any of

PROVERBS I. 8.— V. 17. <#J9

those who are miscarried by her lustful and wanton baits do ever
recover themselves again, and return to the paths of life.

III.3. "Let not mercy and truth forsake thee : bind them
about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart."] —
Lay thou fast hold on the everlasting mercy and truth of God, so
as no evil occurrence may slacken thy confidence thereon ; and,
withal, be not thou removed from the exercise of mercy and truth
towards thy brethren ; make much of these, and keep them close
to thee, as thine own soul.

27. " Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it
is in the power of thine hand to do it."] — Withhold not good from
them to whom it ought to be given or done, whether upon their
deserving or upon their need, when God gives thee the power to
perform it.

IV. 1 6, 17. "Their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some
to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine
of violence."] — As the natural sleep arises from the vapours sent
up out of the stomach, so doth the rest of these wicked men; when
they have eaten wickedness as bread, and poured in violence and
oppression as wine, then can they repose themselves in a false
quietness and contentment.

23. " For out of it are the issues of life."] — For, as the heart
is the fountain of the natural life, so it is of the spiritual : there is
the seat of grace and holiness : from thence flows either the hap
piness or misery of man.

25. "Let thine eyes look right on," &c.] — Let neither thine
eyes nor thine other senses be drawn aside, either to the right
hand or to the left ; but let them be directed aright, according to
the law of thy God.

V. 3. "The lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb."]
—The lips of an harlot are full of sweet enticements.

15. " Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters
out of thine own well.'''] — Enjoy thou the lawful pleasures and
contentments of thine own wife; and let her chaste love be as
some clear and pure waters out of thine own well, to refresh and
satisfy thee.

17." Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee."]
—Those streams of an happy and comfortable issue, which shall be
derived from thee, let them be only thine own, deduced from the
chaste and holy marriage-bed ; let not the adulterous womb or
loins have any share in them.

PARAPHRASE UPON

VI. 3. "Make sure thy friend," &c.] — Use all seasonable im
portunity unto that friend to whom thou art engaged ; and make
all means for a discharge from that friend for whom thou art
engaged, that so, by this earnest solicitation of both parts, thou
mayest be freed.

13. "He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he
teacheth with his fingers.1"] — The lewd man composeth all his
parts to deceit : every gesture of his tendeth to fraud : the very
motion of his eyes, of his feet, of his fingers, is vocal and signifi
cant, and expresseth some secret intimation of guile.

30. " Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul
when he is hungry ;"] — Theft is an odious sin ; yet, if we would
compare the thief with the adulterer, we shall find much difference
in the heinonsness of the offence : men are not wont to be inexora
bly cruel against him that steals out of his pure need ;

31. "But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall
give all the substance of his house."] — But if he be found, how
dear soever he pay for his fault, by way of satisfaction or mulct,
the sum is yet accepted of the party wronged. But whoso com-
mitteth adultery, &c.

VII. 4. " Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister."] — Be thou so
familiar with wisdom, as if she were thy own natural sister.

14. " I have peace offerings with rne; this day have I paid my
vows."] — I have plentiful provision of cheer ; and, besides, I can
handsomly veil our meeting under a fair pretence of devotion, so
as thou mayest boldly and cheerfully resort unto my house.

23. "Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to
the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life."] — Thus he
yieldeth to her lust, until the revenging husband, out of his just
jealousy, give a deadly stroke to his adulterous rival ; or till the
just judgment of God seize upon body and soul ; being thus heed
lessly drawn in, as a bird is into the snare, not considering, that
under the show of a little chaff or straw, her life is laid for.

26. " For she hath cast down many wounded : yea, many
strong men have been slain by her."] — For she hath first wounded,
and after vanquished and slain many ; yea, not only of the meaner
and baser sort, but many that have been most famous for valour^
strength, wisdom, have been foiled and undone by her.

VIII. 2. " She standeth in the top of high places, by the way
in the places of the paths."] — Thus doth the harlot, by her secret
whisperings, allure men to their destruction ; but the pure, holy,

PROVERBS VI. 3.— IX. 3. 241

heavenly wisdom of the glorious and ever-living God, doth openly
invite all men to her gracious counsel, to her most chaste and
happy embracements. She therefore standeth forth in the most
frequent and conspicuous places of the city, and earnestly solicits
all passengers to give ear unto her for their own salvation.

10. "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge
rather than choice gold."] — Make no comparison of my instruc
tion with silver and gold : alas, these are base and corruptible
metals, not worthy to come into mention with those heavenly
treasures which are contained in and conveyed by my divine
counsels.

12. "I wisdom dwell with prudence."] — True judgment and
skill how to manage all affairs doth proceed from me, and is in
separable from me ; so as men have reason, for their own good,
to listen unto me.

17. "I love them that love me."] — Those that affect me shall
be sure not to lose their love and recompense ; for as I have em
braced them with an everlasting love, so will 1 make it known to
them by my manifold blessings and mercies concerning this life
and the future.

22. " The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, be
fore his works of old."] — I, the uncreated wisdom of God, was
with the Father from all eternity; neither was there any time
wherein I was not : I was with him and in him before any of the
works of his creation had any being.

30. " Then I was by him, as one brought up with him : and I
was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him."] — Then was
I present by him, as one that was coeternal with him ; and in
whom we did mutually and infinitely solace each other from ever
lasting.

IX. i. " Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out
her seven pillars."] — The Son of God, who is the eternal wisdom
of the Father, hath built his house, the Church of God : he hath
laid sure foundations of it, and hath hewn out all the pillars thereof
in a seemly and exquisite perfection.

•i. "She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine;
she hath also furnished her table."] — He hath instituted and ad
dressed all his holy ordinances, whereby he may feed up the souls
of men to everlasting life.

3. " She hath sent forth her maidens : she crieth upon the
highest places of the city."]— He hath sent forth his holy and

BP. HALL, VOL. III. B

PARAPHRASE UPON

zealous messengers, to invite men to the participation of his sacred
mysteries ; and they do accordingly use all holy importunity to
this good purpose.

12. " If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself."] — If thou
be wise, thou thyself shalt reap the comfort and benefit of that
wisdom of thine : others may be profited by it ; but the greatest
advantage shall be thine own, &c.

1 8. " But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that
her guests are in the depths of hell."] — He considereth not that
they are but dead men which give way to her lustful enticements ;
and that those with whom she hath prevailed are in a state of
everlasting perdition.

X. io. " lie that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow : but a
prating fool shall fall."] — The double-dealing and dissembling
person causeth much sorrow at the last, both to himself and to
those that have been deceived by him ; but a prating fool, that
utters all his heart, procures stripes to himself without further
danger to others.

11. "Violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.'1] — There is
nothing in the mouth of the wicked but violent and cruel designs.

1 8. " He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that utter-
eth a slander, is a fool."] — Both he that smothereth his secret
rancour under fair and plausible words, and he that uttereth it in
slanderous speeches, is a fool.

XI. 9. " An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour :
but through knowledge shall the just be delivered."] — A dissem
bling friend, with fair and false words and semblances, draweth
his neighbour into some dangerous inconvenience ; but a wise and
just man will soon perceive his fraud, and avoid him, and the mis
chief plotted by him.

12. "He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour : but a
man of understanding holdeth his peace."] — A foolish man speaks
spitefully and scornfully of his neighbour : but he that is wise
concealeth his thoughts, and will not utter aught to the reproach
of another.

17. "The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he
that is cruel troubleth his own flesh."] — The merciful man, while
he doth good to others doth most good to his own soul, which
shall reap the comfort of all his beneficence ; but he that is cruel
to others, is, in that very disposition, the greatest enemy to
himself.

PROVERBS IX. 12.— XII. 1 6. 243

21. " Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be un
punished.'1''] — Though wicked men conspire, and join all their
forces together, yet all their combination and power shall not free
them from just punishment.

22. "As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman
which is without discretion."] — Beauty is no more an ornament
to a foolish, undiscreet, ungoverned woman, than a golden jewel
is to a swine's snout ; both are equally misplaced ; both are equally
rnisbeseeming.

24. "There is that scattereth, and yet increascth."] — The li
beral man, that scattereth abroad his goods in a free bountiful
largition, so much more grows in wealth, through the blessing of
God, by how much more frankly he bestows it.

29. "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind :
and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart."] — He that is
an enemy to his own thrift, and prodigally wasteth his estate, shall
inherit nothing but an empty wind of applause for the time, and
afterwards want and beggary : and he that was so foolish as to
misspend himself, shall come to be a servant at the last to him
that is wise to get and to keep his own.

31. " Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth :
much more the wicked and the sinner."] — Behold, even the most
just and holy man upon earth shall be sure of his measure of
afflictions here in the world ; how much more shall the uncon
scionable and ungodly man be sure to smart for his wickedness,
either here or hereafter !

XII. 9. " He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better
than he that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread."] — A man
that is mean in his own conceit, and yet hath somewhat to take
unto, is better than a proud and vain braggart, that wanteth
means of necessary maintenance.

1 2. " The wicked desireth the net of evil men"'] — The wicked
man affects those means of fraudulent circumvention which he sees
some crafty oppressors use to their advantage.

14. "A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his
mouth : and the recompense of a man's hands shall be rendered
unto him."] — A good man shall, through God's merciful retribu
tion, find much comfort and benefit, both to himself and to others,
from the gracious words of holy counsel which proceed from his
mouth, and also from the holy works of his hands.

1 6. "A fool's wrath is presently known: but a prudent man

R 2

244 PARAPHRASE UPON

covereth shame."]— A fool cannot be angry but he must pre
sently show it, and break forth into open distempers ; but a wise
man hides his passions, till he sees fit opportunities and means to
manifest them, so as may be most safe and advantageous to
himself.

20. " Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil : but to
the counsellors of peace is joy/'] — Those whose hearts are
full of mischievous devices do in the end but deceive themselves ;
but those that advise or procure good unto others shall have
much joy in themselves.

XIII. 3. "He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life."] — He
that looks carefully to his tongue, restraining it from many and
offensive words, takes a safe course for the preserving of his life,
which is ofttimes endangered by much and wild talking.

7. " There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing."] —
There be some that brag and make ostentation of much wealth ;
affecting to be counted rich, when indeed they have little or no
thing that may be justly called theirs.

9. " The light of the righteous rejoiceth : but the lamp of the
wicked shall be put out."] — The heart of the righteous man shall
be exceedingly cheered with those true causes of joy which God
gives unto him ; but the seeming and false mirth of wicked men,
wherewith they vainly please themselves, shall be soon put out
and end in sorrow.

14. " The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from
the snares of death."] — The law of God, which is the matter and
scope whereto all the instruction of wise teachers tendeth, is that
fountain from which spiritual and eternal life floweth, arid the
only means to deliver the soul from the snares of everlasting
death.

15. " Good understanding giveth favour : but the way of trans
gressors is hard."] — Good insight into businesses, and discreet
carriage of them, procureth thankful acceptance ; but those that
take wrong courses cause much trouble and vexation.

23 "Much food is in the tillage of the poor."] — Even a poor
man, by pains and industry, may grow rich ; and, by his laborious
tillage, obtaineth a large crop.

XIV. 3. "In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride ; but the
lips of the wise shall preserve them."] — The tongue of a fool is a
scourge, whereby his own pride and overweening is lashed ; but
the lips of the wise are a safe defence for himself.

PROVERBS XII. 20.— XIV. 24. 245

4. " Where no oxen are, the crib is clean ; but much increase
is by the strength of the ox."] — Where there is no husbandry, or
use of the ox, there needs no labour to make the crib clean ; but
that neatness is accompanied with want : as, contrarily, where the
oxen are employed for tillage, the crib may be foul, but the barns
shall be full.

8. " But the folly of fools is deceit."] — The wicked man, who
is indeed no better than a fool, employs all that wit he hath to
deceive others.

9. •'' Fools make a mock at sin ; but among the righteous there
is favour."] — The wicked fool makes himself merry with his sin,
and scoffs at the reproof and judgment which pertains thereunto ;
but the righteous hath a care so to behave himself, that he shall
carry away favour both from God and men.

J o. " The heart knoweth his own bitterness ; and a stranger
do lh not intermeddle with his joy,"]---A man Is best acquainted
with his own secret sorrows, and knows where he is inwardly
wrung, while the world thinks him happy : as contrarily he may
have hidden occasions of joy, which cannot be judged of by the
lookers on.

13. " Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful ; and the end of
that mirth is heaviness."] — It is often seen, that while the face
counterfeits a smile the heart is inwardly heavy and vexed, and
after a feigned and forced mirth returns to the former grief.

14 "The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways:
and a good man shall- be satisfied from himself."] — A man that
is froward and perverse, and that willingly falls from his former
good purposes, shall be sure to bear the punishment of his own
wicked courses ; and a good man shall reap the comfort of his holy
carriage, and enjoy the conscience of his own integrity.

19. " The evil bow before the good."] — God will so bless and
advance the righteous man, that the wicked and unconscionable
shall be glad to crouch and bow before him.

23. " But the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury."] — He
that spendeth his time in idle talk, and doth nothing, shall be sure
to come to poverty.

24. " The crown of the wise is their riches : but the foolishness
of fools is folly.'1''] — A wise man, if he have riches, is much graced
and adorned thereby ; but a fool, though he have wealth, yet
will be a fool still, and hath hereupon more occasion to manifest
his follv.

216 PARAPHRASE UPON

26. " In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence : and his
children shall have a place of refuge"] — He that feareth the Lord
hath reason to be strongly confident in the favour and sure pro
tection of the Almighty, and shall find God a like powerful refuge
even to his posterity after him.

30. " A sound heart is the life of the flesh : but," &c.] — An
heart that is clearly free from envy and all vicious affections is a
comfortable preserver of the body ; but, &c.

XV. 4. " A wholesome tongue is a tree of life : but perverse-
ness therein is a breach in the spirit."] — A well-governed, holy,
and discreet tongue preserveth a man safe from dangers, and
yieldeth spiritual nourishment unto others ; but perverseriess
therein is like a blustering wind among the boughs of the trees,
rending and tearing the life and spirit of a man's self and others.

11. " Hell and destruction are before the Lord: how much
more then the hearts of the children of men !"] — Even the de
vouring grave, and the lowest depths of the earth, lie open to the
eyes of the Lord : how much more doth he behold the bottom of
man's heart !

19. " The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns."]
—Every thing seems difficult to a slothful man : he is as unwill
ing to go about his business as a man would be to tread upon an
hedge of thorns.

24. " The way of life is above to the wise."] — He that is truly
wise hath his affections and conversation above, and in the holy
way of obedience walketh on to eternal life.

30. " The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart : and a good
report maketh the bones fat."111] — Both the eye and the ear yield
much comfort and refreshing to the soul : the eye is pleased with
lightsome and pleasant objects ; the ear with hearing of a good
report concerning ourselves ; wherein we take so much content
ment as that hereby we are fed and fattened.

XVI. i . " The preparations of the heart in man, and the an
swer of the tongue, is from the LORD."] — Let it be yielded that
a man hath power of his own thoughts, so as he can digest and
prepare what he means to speak and put all his words in due
order ; yet, when he shall come to utter them, God hath the dis
posing of his tongue : so as a man shall speak, not what himself
hath contrived, but what God hath predetermined.

2. " All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes ; but the
LOKJ> weigheth the spirits."] — Every man is apt to think the best

PROVERBS XIV. 26.— XVI. 33. 047

of his own actions, and to justify himself in his own courses ; but
the Lord judgeth and examineth the soul and spirit of man, and,
according to the truth of his inward dispositions, so doth he pass
sentence upon him and his ways.

4 " The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the
wicked for the day of evil."] — The Lord hath in all his works of
creation and providence had a just eye to his own glory ; inso
much as the most wicked men, which might seem to be most ex
empted from the regard and preordination of God, yet are not
out of the compass of his holy and just decree ; in that out of their
evil he hath decreed to bring good, and to glorify himself in their
just punishment.

6. " By mercy and truth iniquity is purged.'11] — It is not an
outward sacrifice that God regards in his remission of the punish
ment of our sin ; but where he finds mercy to the poor, and up
rightness of heart towards himself and men, there he is graciously
pleased to forbear his judgments ; inasmuch as these graces, being
wrought in us by his Spirit, cannot but proceed from a true faith,
whereby our sins are purged.

10. " A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth
transgresseth not in judgment."] — As God raiseth princes above
other men, so he endueth them w^ith excellent graces answerable
to their high callings : he puts therefore divine sentences into their
mouths which meaner men could not have attained unto ; and
giveth their tongues, even in doubtful and hidden causes, to pass
a wise and just judgment.

26. " He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth
craveth it of him."] — A man needs no other inducement to labour
but his own profit, yea, his own necessity ; for it is that whereby
he must sustain himself and uphold nature, which craveth it of him.

27. "An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is
as a burning fire."] — An ungodly man, if he cannot find opportu
nities of doing mischief, will busily search for them ; and as his
heart is ill employed, so his tongue is worse, for that is as a burn
ing firebrand to set all the world in combustion.

31. "The hoary head is a crown of glory, ifii be found in the
way of righteousness.''] — Old age and the sign thereof, gray hairs,
are a great ornament to a man that lives justly and uprightly in
the world.

33. "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing
thereof is of the LORD."]— The lots are thrown at random and at

248 PARAPHRASE UPON

peradventure ; but there is an overruling hand of God that dis-
poseth of them how they shall light, and hath certainly determined
that which carries a show of casualty.

XVII. 7. " Excellent speech becometh not a fool : much less do
lying lips a prince."] — Men use to speak as they are : an high,
deep, philosophical discourse sounds ill from the mouth of a fool ;
a moral and grave discourse of virtue and good behaviour ill be
comes a debauched and vicious man ; but of all, it is most misbe
coming a prince to utter lies and falsehood.

8. " A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath
it : whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth."] — Secret gifts are
wont to win favour and much acceptation to the party that brings
them ; and if they fall into the hands of corrupt judges, have
power to draw them into either part, and to sway any cause
whatsoever.

9. " He that covereth a transgression seeketh love ; but he
that repeateth a matter separateth very friends."] — He that con-
cealeth within himself an offence done to him by his friend, takes
a course to maintain love and friendship ; but he that will be call
ing every light unkindness into question, and expostulates upon
every occasion, shall be sure to lose his friends.

14. " The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out
water," &c.] — As it is with water when it is dammed up, if the
smallest hole be made for a passage, it violently rusheth in, and
beareth down all those clods which were laid to keep it in ; so it
is with contention : if the least way be given to it, it enlargeth it
self, and groweth furious and strong by opposition, &c.

16. " Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get
wisdom, seeing he hath no heart ?"] — A wealthy fool doth in vain
hope by all his bags to purchase wisdom, since he hath not an heart
that is capable of it.

1 9. " He that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction."] — The
proud man, that builds his gate too high for the offence or over
looking of his neighbour, may endanger himself the sorer fall
therefrom, and therefore works peril and hurt to himself.

24. " Wisdom is before him that hath understanding ; but the

O *

eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth."]— He that hath un
derstanding fixeth his eyes upon wisdom, and contenteth himself
with that object; whereas the eyes of a fool are inconstantly
wandering every where, and his thoughts settle upon nothing that
may avail to his good.

PROVERBS XVII. 7.— XIX. 3. 549

27. "A man of understanding is of an excellent (or cool)
spirit."] — A m.-in of understanding is of a well tempered spirit;
not too forward in putting forth himself.

XVIII. i. "Through desire a man, having separated himself,
seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom."] — He that in a fer
vent desire of knowledge hath set himself apart to his continual
study, laboureth to inform himself in all points of wisdom ; so as
he may not be a stranger in any kind of learning.

3. " When the wicked cometh, then cometh also contempt."] —
Wheresoever the wicked man cometh, he is apt to cast reproach
and contempt upon every man's face.

4. " The words of a man^s mouth are as deep waters, and
the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook/'] — A wise man
utters not all he knows : his words are like to deep waters, the
bottom whereof cannot easily be fathomed ; and his wisdom is as
a living spring, which sends up full brooks that are ready to over
flow their banks : so plentiful is he in good discourse and whole
some counsel.

9. "He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that
is a great waster ."] — The slothful man is little better than a great
spender: he equally consumes the estate wherewith he is intrusted.

i o. " The name of the LORD is a strong tower."] — The good
ness, mercy, and power of the Lord is a safe and strong refuge to
all those who trust unto it.

14. "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a
wounded spirit who can bear?"] — A resolute and undaunted
spirit is able to bear up both its own infirmities and those of the
body also ; but if the heart of a man be wounded, and dejected
with whatsoever cross befalls unto it, what means hath a man any
longer to subsist and to sustain himself? there is no remedy, but
he must droop and yield.

21. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue : and they
that love it shall eat the fruit thereof."] — It is a great power
which the tongue hath, whether for life or death : good words
tend to life, evil unto death, whether to ourselves or others : and
according as a man had rather to improve it, so it shall speed
with him either way.

XIX. 2. " He that hasteth with his feet sinneth."]— - He that
falls rashly upon his determinations, without weighing all due cir
cumstances, cannot but offend.

3. "The foolishness of man pcrverteth his way: and his

250 PARAPHRASE UPON

heart fretteth against the LORD."] —It is through a man's own
foolishness that he miscarries in his businesses, and that he
takes lewd courses ; and when he justly smarteth, through h:s
own fault, his heart fretteth, and his tongue muttereth against
the Lord, as the author of all his harm and misery.

14. House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: and a
prudent wife is from the LORD."] — Houses and riches may be
derived to us by way of inheritance from our forefathers, without
our care or endeavour, but a prudent and virtuous wife is a spe
cial blessing of God's immediate choosing, and must therefore be
obtained by our prayers at the hand of the giver.

19. "A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if
thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again."] — A man that is
subject to often and extreme passions of anger cannot avoid many
and great inconveniences, which he brings upon himself; and if
thou do in a friendly manner free him from some dangerous
effects of his wrath, yet he will put thee to it again.

22. "The desire of a man is his kindness : and a poor man is
better than a liar."] — That which should be the chief desire of a
man is his beneficence and kindness to others ; and if a rich man
promise much and perform nothing, a poor man, that is unable
either to undertake or perform, is better than he.

XX. i. "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging."] — Excess
of wine beguiles a man of his wits and senses, and exposeth him
to the scorn and derision of every beholder ; and strong drink
inflames the blood, and makes a man apt to fall into raging dis
tempers.

5. " Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water."] See
Prov. xviii. 4.

10. "Divers weights, and divers measures."] — A fraudulent
diversity of weights and measures is abominable to the Lord.

j J . " Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work
be pure, and whether it be right."] — It is not hard, by the car
riage and disposition of the childhood, to judge what is to be
hoped or feared of a man's riper age : either good or evil begins
to show itself betimes.

12. "The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath
made even both of them.11] — There are ears that hear not, and
eyes that see not ; but if a man have an hearing car and a seeing
eye, he is doubly bound to God both for his sense and the im
provement of it.

PROVERBS XIX. 14.— XXI. 4. 251

15. "There is gold, and a multitude of rubies: but the lips of
knowledge are a precious jewel."] — Men esteem much of gold and
precious stones ; but the man that is furnished with learning and
knowledge deserves to be held of far greater price than all these
earthen treasures.

17. "Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his
mouth shall be filled with gravel."] — The bread which a man
hath got by fraud and cozenage seems sweet and pleasant at the
first taste of it ; but by that time he hath chewed it a little, he
shall find it to be but harsh gravel, that crasheth between his
teeth, galls his jaws, and wounds his tongue, and offends his
palate.

20. " Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be
put out in obscure darkness.""] — Whoso curseth his parents, his
comfort and help shall be sure to be taken from him when he
hath the most need of it ; and he shall be left utterly miserable
and disconsolate.

24. " Man's goings are of the LORD ; how can a man then un
derstand his own way?"] — It is the Lord that disposeth of all the
actions and events of man : he hath ordered them, he overrules
and governs them according to his own will : it is not in the
power of man either to know what will betide himself, or to set
himself in any good way, to will or to do aught that may be
pleasing unto God.

25. "It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is
holy, and after vows to make enquiry."] — lie entangleth his soul
in the snares of death who resumeth unto a profane use that
which is once consecrated unto God, and who, after he hath
vowed aught unto the Lord, argues within himself how to alter
that holy purpose, and to defeat God of his due.

27. "The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching
all the inward parts of the belly."] — The reasonable soul is as a
bright candle which God hath set up in man, which gives light
unto him for the finding out of the strange secrets of nature.

30. " The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil : so do
stripes the inward parts of the belly."] — Scourgings and woundings
are the best cure of the lewd misbehaviour of wicked men : only
fear and smart can restrain them ; sound punishment is therefore
fit for them ; even such stripes as may pierce to the very inward
parts of the body.

XXI. 4. "An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing

252 PARAPHRASE UPON

of the wicked, is sin."] — The wicked man hath an haughty look
and a proud heart, neither are his misdispositions only sinful, but
those his very actions and endeavours, which in another man
would be harmless, are in him no other than sin.

5. "The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness ;
but of every one that is hasty only to want."] — The thoughts
and projects of him that is truly diligent are still to excellent pur
pose, and tend to the advancing and enriching of a man's estate ;
but the hasty and rash thoughts of him that is too eager of the
world disappoint a man, and bring him to want.

6. "The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity
tossed to and fro of them that seek death."] — The wealth that is
gotten by falsehood and lies is altogether uncertain and transitory,
neither shall continue long in any one hand ; and besides, pro
cures the utter destruction both of soul and body to him that un
justly gets it.

1 8. " The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the
transgressor for the upright."] — It many times falls out, through
the wise and just providence of God, that those calamities which
threatened to seize upon the godly and righteous man, do balk
him, and fall upon the wicked and unconscionable.

24. " Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in
proud wrath."] — He that deals proudly in his anger is worthy
to be branded with the name of an insolent scorner.

25. "The desire of the slothful killeth him."] — The vain and
fruitless desire of a slothful man affamisheth him, while he lono-s

o

for that which he will not set his hand to purchase, but will rather
sit still arid starve.

XXII. 2. "The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the
maker of them all."]— The wisdom of God hath not thought fit
to make all men rich or all poor, but hath intermixed the one with
the other, that each of them might have use of other ; neither is
it for the wealthy to insult upon or oppress the needy, since it is
God that hath made them both such as they are, and he both can
and will revenge any unjust measure that is offered by the one to
the other.

5. " Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward."] — The
froward and perverse is as a man on all sides encompassed with
thorns and snares : his stubbornness brings him into infinite per
plexities, out of which he can find no issue.

13. "The slothful man saith, There is a lion without."] —

PROVERBS XXI. 5.-XXIII. 7. o5jj

The slothful man feigns idle excuses and pretences of danger when
he should go about his business.

14. "The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is
abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein/'] — The plausible and
smooth tongue of an harlot is no less dangerous than a deep pit
fairly covered ; into which if a man once fall there is small hope
of recovering himself; and it is a fearful sign and effect of God's
anger to be given over to her enticements.

15. " Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child ; but the rod
of correction shall drive it far from him. "] — There is a foolish
waywardness that is natural to the child and cleaves close to his
disposition ; yet not so, but that it may be, with due correction,
whipped out of him.

1 6. " He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and
he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want."] — As well
he that unjustly takes from the poor to enrich himself, as he that
gives to the rich that which he unduly withholds from the poor,
shall, through the just judgment of God, come to want.

XXIII. 2. Put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to
appetite."] — Be careful by all means to restrain thy wanton ap
petite, if thou be a man given to please thy palate.

4. " Labour not to be rich : cease from thine own wisdom/*] —
Do not too eagerly affect and labour to be rich, and follow not
thine own carnal wisdom, which suggests unto thee wrong ways to
the hasty purchase of wealth.

5. " Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not ? for riches
certainly make themselves wings ; they fly away as an eagle to
ward heaven."] — Wilt thou be so foolish as to fix thine heart and
thine eyes upon that which hath no constant being ? For surely
riches are of a flitting, uncertain condition : they will not abide
with thee, but, as with eagles' wings, will fly away from thee.

6. " Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, nei
ther desire thou his dainty meats."] — Be not thou beholden to
a niggard for his bread, neither do thou wish to take part with
him in any dainty dish.

7. "For as he. thinketh in his heart, so is he : Eat and drink,
saith he to thee ; but his heart is not with thee."] — For as in his
heart he doth inwardly grudge thee every bit thou eatest, so in
his countenance and gesture he bewrays it : he bids thee, after his
churlish fashion, to eat and drink ; but his heart repines at thy
presence, and wishes thee farther off.

254 PARAPHRASE UPON

8. The morsel ivhich thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up. and
lose thy sweet words."] — So shalt thou be vexed with thy grudging
entertainment, that thou shalt wish the churl's meat were out of
thy belly, and shalt repent of all those kind words that thou hast
cast away upon so harsh and unworthy an host.

1 8. "For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall
not be cut off."] — For surely there shall be an happy and wished
end, and a blessed reward of all thy holy endeavours ; and thine
expectation of a joyful retribution shall not be disappointed.

23. "Buy the truth, and sell it not."] — Be thou glad to pur
chase the truth at any rate ; whatsoever it cost thee, the penny
worth is not dear ; but when thou hast it, do not part with it upon
any terms.

27. "A whore is a deep ditch."] See Prov. xxii. 14.

28. " She increaseth the transgressors among men."] — She is
the means to draw men into much wickedness.

29. " Who hath woe ? who hath sorrow ? who hath contentions ?
who hath babbling ? who hath wounds without cause ? who hath
redness of eyes ?"] — Every wickedness brings mischief with it ;
but who is the man that especially draws upon himself all manner
of sorrows and inconveniences both in soul and in body and
estate? who is he that raiseth quarrels and contentions upon
every trifle ? who is he that is full of idle, obscene, unsavory words ?
who is he that in distempered frays gets stripes and wounds ? who
is he that afflicts his eyes with defluxions and inflammations ?

30. " They that tarry long at the wine ; they that go to seek
mixed wine."] — Who, but even he that sits long at the wine, that
hunts about from one tavern to another where he may find the
most exquisite wine and the truest drunkards.

31. "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it
giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright."] —
Suffer not thine eyes to be tempted, to take too much pleasure in
beholding the pure and pleasing colour of the wine when it shows
itself in the glass ; and when, through the strength and spirit that
is in it, it sparkleth right upward therein.

34. " Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of
the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast."] — Thy head
shall be so giddy, and thy brain so turned within thee, as if thou
wert laid seasick in the midst of the ship, or as if thou layest upon
the top of a tottering mast.

35. "They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not

PROVERBS XXIII. 35.— XXIV. 16. 255

sick ; they have beaten me, and I felt it not : when shall I awake ?
I will seek it yet again."]— Thou shalt be made so senseless, that
thou shalt not know either what thou dost or what is done to
thee : when thou art stricken thou art not affected with it, and
when thou art beaten thou art not sensible of it ; and so shalt thou
be besotted with this excess of liquor, that thou shalt resolve, after
all correction, when thou awakest out of thy drunken sleep, to re
turn to the wonted course of thy drunkenness.

XXIV. 5. " A wise man is strong ; yea, a man of knowledge
increaseth strength."] — A wise man hath much inward strength
in himself ; yea, he that is a man of knowledge and understanding
gives a great increase of strength and defence unto the whole city
or community wherein he is.

7. " Wisdom is too high for a fool : he openeth not his mouth
in the gate."] — Wisdom is too high for a fool to attain unto, nei
ther hath he any capacity of public employments ; either he is
not called to counsel or is unable to give it.

9. " The thought of foolishness is sin."] —He that is wickedly
foolish entertaineth commonly no thoughts but sinful.

u. "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death,
and those that are ready to be slain ;"] — If thou do, out of a will
ing neglect or unmercifulness, forbear to deliver those who are
crushed by oppression and led to an unjust death, and now are
ready for a cruel execution ;

12. " If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that
pondereth the heart consider ?" &c.] — Think not to plead excuses
of thine ignorance, as to say, I knew not this man to be innocent, the
other unjust ; neither the quality of his desert nor the means of
his delivery ; for there is an allseeing God who looks upon the
secrets of all hearts, who is privy to the falsehood of all thy vain
pretences and dissimulation.

13. "My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the
honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste :"] — My son, as when thou
eatest honey thou findest the taste of it sweet, and the honeycomb
which thou tastest is delightful to thy palate ;

14. " So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul."] —
So shalt thou find the knowledge of heavenly wisdom unspeakably
delectable to thy soul.

16. "For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again :
but the wicked shall fall into mischief."] — For the righteous man, if
he fall into manifold miseries and calamities, yet, through the good-

256 PARAPHRASE UPON

ness of God, ho shall be delivered out of them all ; but the wicked
man, through God's just judgments, shall fall unrecoverably.

18. "And he turn away his wrath from him."] — Lest he turn
away his -wrath from him, and turn it upon thee.

21. " Meddle not with them that are given to change."] — Have
nothing to do with them who are seditiously disposed ; who vary
from all good laws and orders, and are affected to innovation and
change both of princes and government.

22. " And who knoweth the ruin of them both ?"] — Who knows
how soon, how suddenly God shall bring judgment and utter ruin
upon both the wicked man and the seditious ?

26. " Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer,"]
— Every good man will appland and bless the mouth of him that
giveth an upright sentence in judgment.

27. "Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in
the field ; and afterwards build thine house."] — Look well to the
settling and husbanding of thine estate ; and when thou hast well
secured and stocked and furnished thyself, then think of either
building or garnishing thine house ; whereof let all the materials be
first provided abroad, ere thou begin with the fabric.

XXV. 2. "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the
honour of kings is to search out a matter .'"'J — It is the great glory
of God's infinite wisdom that he hath hidden mysteries, which our
weak and ignorant capacity cannot reach unto ; but as for these
human affairs, they may be searched into ; and it is the glory of
kings to fathom them, even to the bottom ; that so they may
thereupon award just judgments upon all occasions.

Or, it is the great praise of God's mercy that he hides and
covers our manifold infirmities ; but it is the houour of kings to
find out and punish offences.

3. "The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the
heart of kings is unsearchable."] —As the heaven is exceedingly
high, and the earth exceedingly deep, beyond the reach of man ; so
is the heart of kings : the very place wherein they are, and the
due managing thereof, calls them to great reservedness.

6. " Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king."]— Make
not too much ostentation of thy wit or wealth or bravery in the
presence of the king ; as if thou wouldest offer to compare with
thy superiors, under whose countenance thou must live ; towards
whom submissness of carriage would both better become thee, and
more avail to thy good.

PROVERBS XXIV. 15.— XXV. 22. 257

9. " Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself; and discover
not a secret to another.""] — If there be a difference betwixt thy
neighbour and thee, take him aside, and in a friendly manner
argue the matter with him alone ; and offer fair terms of peace
and reconciliation ; and discover not a secret unkindness to a third
person, till thou seest no other way of atonement.

11. "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of
silver."] — A seasonable and discreet speech is a most pleasing and
precious thing ; and no less delights the ear and the mind, than
the most curious and costly embroidery, or pictures of gold and
silver, doth the eye.

1 2. " As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so
is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear."] — A docible and pliable
ear accounts a loving and discreet reproof of his friend more
precious than the richest earring of gold, or whatsoever more
curious and costly ornament.

13. "As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful
messenger to them that send him."] — The coolness of the snow or
ice, wherewith the liquor is wont, in hot regions to be tempered,
doth not more refresh the thirsty traveller, in the heat of summer,
than a faithful messenger doth refresh arid content the heart of
him that sends him.

1 4. " Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and
wind without rain."] — He that makes bountiful and deluding
promises of great gifts, which will never be performed, is like a
cloud, which makes show of that rain which it will not or cannot
yield.

15. "A soft tongue breaketh the bone."] — A gentle and sub
missive answer softeneth and suppleth the most obdured and inflex
ible heart.

1 6 . " Hast thou found honey ? eat so much as is sufficient for
thee."] — Take but a meet and moderate measure of those things
which are most pleasing and delightful to thy nature or appetite.

20. " As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and
as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy
heart."] — He that offers music to a man in deep heaviness doth
as unseasonably as he that takes off a coverlid in an extreme cold
weather from the bed; or as he who, to preserve nitre, pours
vinegar upon it, wherewith it is presently dissolved.

22. " For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the
LORD will reward thee."] — For thus, thou shalt either win and

BP. HALL, VOL. III. *

258 PARAPHRASE UPON

overcome him with kindness, or, if he be stubbornly malicious,
thou shalt aggravate his judgment ; and if he continue unthankful
to thee, yet that God, for whose sake thou dost good for evil, will
be sure to retribute it graciously unto thee.

26. "A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a
troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring."] — Look how hateful a
thing it is to see a clear and pure fountain annoyed with mud and
filth ; so odious a sight it is to see a just man oppressed and ty
rannized over by a wicked one.

27. "It is not good to eat much honey : so for men to search
their own glory is not glory."] — Honey is good, but to cat too
much honey is not good ; so, to have a care of our own reputation
and honour is good, but to seek our own glory and reputation too
much is shameful and justly odious.

XXVI. 2. " As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying,
so the curse causeless shall not come"] — As a bird flies swiftly
away, and returns not to thy hand again ; so the causeless curse
shall vanish into the air suddenly, and never come near thee, to
thy hurt.

4. " Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be
like unto him."] — Answer not a fool in that idle or malicious
fashion wherein he provoketh thee, lest thou declare thyself to be
as very a fool as he.

5. " Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his
own conceit."] — In a discreet and sober manner take up a fool
roundly, and convince him of his absurd cavils and proud igno
rance, lest otherwise he go away more highly conceited of his
own abilities and victory.

6. " He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth
off the feet, and drinketh damage."] — No more can a fool do his
message, than a man without feet can go : he therefore doth as it
were cut off his own feet that sends a fool on his errand ; for
both he is disappointed and sustains loss.

7 . " The legs of the lame are not equal : so is a parable in the
mouth of fools."] — As there is a disproportion in the legs of the
lame man, whereof one is longer, another shorter, both unfit for
motion ; so there is much unmeetness in a fool's parable ; it doth
neither agree with itself nor with him that speaks it.

8. " As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, so is he that giveth
honour to a fool."] — He that giveth applause and honour to the
person or speech of a fool doth as unseasonably as he that binds

PROVERBS XXV. 26.— XXVII. 10. 259

up a stone in a sling which should be altogether for ejaculation,
and should no more be fastened therein than an high conceit
should be raised and fixed in the mind of a fool by our flattering
approbation.

9. " As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a
parable in the mouth of fools."] — It is no more fit for a fool to
meddle with a wise speech, than for a drunken man to handle a
thorn bush ; this wounds him, that shames him.

1 6. " The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men
that can render a reason."] — The sluggard will not be beaten out
of his sloth ; and let never so many wise men persuade him to
shake off his dull idleness, yet he persists in his error, and thinks
himself herein wiser than they all.

1 8, 19. "As a mad man who casteth firebrands, arrows, and
death, so is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am
not I in sport?"] — There is little difference in this case betwixt
fraud and fury : he that purposely deceives his neighbour under
a colour of jest, is no less prejudicial to him than a lunatic that
doth wrong out of frenzy and distemper.

23. "Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd
covered with silver dross."] — Lips full of secret detraction and
slander, joined with a false and malicious heart, are like a base
potsherd of earth, covered over with some filings of silver : under
some shows of friendship, there is nothing within but filthy hy
pocrisy.

25. " There are seven abominations in his heart."] — There are
many varieties of secret wickednesses in his heart.

28. " A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it."] —
A man of a lying tongue hates those whom he hath wronged,
only out of the conscience of his own injury, because he knows
he hath deserved to be hated by them.

XXVII. i . " Boast not thyself of to morrow ; for thou knowest
not what a day may bring forth."] — Be not too jocund, or too
confident of that which thou wilt do or have to morrow ; for thou
knowest not what changes may fall out in a day.

3. " A fool's wrath is heavier than them both."] — A fool's wrath
is more troublesome to bear, and more intolerable than they.

10. " Neither go into thy brother's house in the day of thy
calamity : for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother
far off."] — Do not rather make choice, in the day of thine adver
sity, to repair for comfort to the house of thy brother, than of thy

S 2

260 PARAPHRASE UPON

tried and faithful friend ; for a true hearted loving neighbour is
better than an overly and unrespective brother.

14. " He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early
in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him."] — The false
acclamation and hollowly officious compliment of a formal friend
shall speed no better with a wise man than if he had entertained
him with a curse ; and that flattery of his shall turn to a curse
upon his own head.

1 6. " AVhosoever hideth her hideth the wind, and the ointment
of his right hand, ivJiich bewrayeth itself."'} — She can no more be
hid than the wind that bloweth upon the face, or the oily substance
of the ointment upon the hand ; these both of them will be per
ceived : so will the unquiet spirit of a contentious woman.

17. " Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the counte
nance of his friend."] — As iron or steel getteth an edge by the
attrition of metal of the same kind, so by the conversation of one
friend with another are the good parts and faculties of men in
creased.

1 9. " As in water face answereth to face ; so the heart of man
to man."] — As he that looks into the water sees there his own
face ; so he that looks into his friend's heart sees there his own
heart.

21. "As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so
is a man to his praise."] — There is no way so sure to try a man's
discretion and temper as by praising him : if he be vain and light,
he will be puffed up with it ; if he be wise and solid, he will be no
whit moved therewith.

23. " Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look
well to thy herds.""] — Be diligent, above all parts of husbandry, in
that which concerns thy cattle, whether flocks or herds, as that
which affordeth the most certain and constant increase.

24. " For riches are not for ever : and doth the crown endure
to every generation ?"] — For the money that thou layest up, and
household treasure, is fickle, and subject to sudden loss, and thy
honour and dignity will not last always ; but the benefit that
arises from thy cattle continues.

25. " The hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself."]
— For the earth in a constant succession yields thee grass and
hay, &c.

XXVIII. i. " The wicked flee when no man pursueth."] — The
wicked man hath such affrights within his own conscience, that he

PROVERBS XXVII. 14.— XXVIII. 24. 2(J1

is subject to be terrified with every outward occasion : and when
he hath no enemy is apt to pursue himself.

2. " For the transgression of a land many are the princes
thereof," &c.j — The wickedness of a land is the cause of the
manifold changes of the princes and governors thereof, whereby
both the people and rulers conspiring in evil are punished.

3. "A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping
rain which leaveth no food."] — A rich oppressor leaves a man
poor, but a poor oppressor leaves him nothing.

4. "They that forsake the law praise the wicked."] — Those
that do willingly break and cast off the law of God, do, in so
doing, give approbation and encouragement to wickedness.

5. "They that seek the LORD understand all things"] — They
that are true hearted to God, and conscionable in their ways, have
so much light from God's spirit, as that they understand their
whole duty to God : they know both what they should do, and
how they should perform it.

17. "A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person
shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him."] — A man that hath
imbrued his hand in innocent blood, driven by the horror of his
conscience, flies he knows not whither ; even into the mouth of the
pit : such a man runs into the very jaws of death ; neither let any
man offer to stay him from that deserved judgment : it is not for
any eye to pity him that hath been so cruel to another.

1 9. " He that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty
enough."] — He that followeth vain and idle persons shall fall into
extreme poverty. ..

22. " He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and con-
sidereth not that poverty shall come upon him."] — He that would
be rich too soon, not caring by what means, how indirect soever,
he obtain wealth, that man hath a covetous eye and a base nig
gardly heart, and knows not that, through the just judgment of
God, this his immoderate eagerness shall be punished with want
and beggary.

24. " Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is
no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer."] —
A rebellious unthrift, that, notwithstanding all good counsel to
the contrary, wasteth the goods of his parents, and will not be
convinced of his offence, but persists in the maintenance of his
lawless courses, is, for the heinousness of his sin, in the next de
gree to a murderer.

PARAPHRASE UPON

XXIX. 5. " A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a
net for his feet."] — A man that flattereth his neighbour goes
about to do him a secret mischief; and doth, as it were, lay a net
to catch and entangle him to his ruin.

8. " Scornful men bring a city into a snare."] — Those that are
wilfully wicked, and do scornfully reject all good counsel and re
proof, are the means to draw down judgments upon the very city
where they dwell.

9. "Whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest."] — Whether
a wise man deal with him seriously and severely, or whether jest
ingly and merrily, all is one ; he shall not be able to prevail ;
either for his own peace or the other's reformation.

10. "But the just seek his soul."] — But the righteous man,
contrarily, seeks to preserve his life, and to save his soul.

12. " If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked."]
— Such as the ruler is, such will be his attendants: if the go
vernor be one, whose ears are open to either flatteries or slanders,
his followers will frame themselves to feed his wicked humours in
all things.

13. <c The poor and the deceitful man meet together : the LORD
lighteneth both their eyes."] — The innocent poor man and the
crafty griping usurer meet both together, and the Lord causeth
his sun to shine upon them both ; maintaining both in life ; doing
good outwardly even to the worst deserving.

1 8. "Where there is no vision, the people perish."] — Where
God withdraweth himself, and doth not reveal his will to any na
tion or people, there is no ordinary means of keeping their souls
from perishing.

19. "A servant will not be corrected by words : for though he
understand he will not answer.""] — He that is of a servile and
sturdy disposition will not be corrected without blows ; for though
he do well enough understand a verbal reproof, yet he is no whit
moved to an answerable regard of it.

24. " He heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not."] — He heareth
men urged with adjurations, whether they have stolen the thing
or know the thief; and yet keeps his wicked counsel, and will not
bewray the malefactor.

25. "The fear of man bringeth a snare."] — That man whose
heart is overcome with a weak and diffident fear, not daring to
cast himself upon the care and providence of the Almighty, bring
eth misery upon himself.

PROVERBS XXIX. 5.— XXX. 13. 263

26. " Many seek the ruler's face (or favour ;) but evert/ man's
judgment cometh from the LORD."] — It is ordinary for men, when
their cause is to be heard, to make friends to the judge ; neglect
ing, in the mean time, to commit themselves and their case to the
Almighty, in whose hand the judge's heart is ; whereas they ought
first to begin with God, which can overrule all the actions and
purposes of men.

XXX. 2, 3. " Surely I am more brutish than any man, &c. I
neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy."] —
Surely I, Agur, am sufficiently conscious to mine own ignorance
and unworthiness : of myself I do, I can know nothing ; and there
fore am, as of myself, utterly unable to reach unto the great mys
teries of salvation.

4. "Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who
hath gathered the wind in his fists ? who hath bound the waters
in a garment ? who hath established all the ends of the earth ?
what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell ?"]
— Indeed, what man can do it ? Alas, how poor and impotent
creatures we are ! Is there any of us able to ascend up into hea
ven, and to descend thence again; yea, have we power to com
mand aught in these lower regions ? have we the rule of the
winds, of the waters, of the earth ? Show me the man that can
or dare arrogate this power to himself.

10. " Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee,
and thou be found guilty."] — Offer no unjust measure to the
meanest person : do not wrongfully accuse a servant to his mas
ter ; lest in the bitterness of his soul he curse thee, and God hear
ing him shall punish thy guiltiness.

i j . " There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth
not bless their mother."] — There are four kinds of men worthy
of our avoidance and detestation : the first is of graceless children,
who curse those parents from whom they have received their life
and being ;

1 2. " There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes,
and yet is not washed from their filthiness.""] — The next is of false
hypocrites and self-pleasers, who think themselves holy and just,
while yet they are full of wickedness ;

13. " There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and
their eyelids are lifted up."] — The third is of proud men, who are
exalted in their own opinions, and look scornfully over other men
perhaps better than themselves ;

PARAPHRASE UPON

14. " There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords/'
&c.] — The last is of cruel oppressors, which kill and devour the
poor, &c.

15. " The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give.
There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things
say not, It is enough :"] — The horseleach hath naturally a forked
tongue, whereby she draweth blood insatiably of that part whereon
soever it lights : answerably whereunto are three things, yea four,
that still crave, and can never be satisfied :

1 6. " The grave ; and the barren womb ; the earth that is not
filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough."] —
The grave is not satisfied with carcasses ; the incontinent womb
is not satisfied with lust; the dry earth drinks up all the water that
falls upon it; the fire devours all the combustible matter that it
lays hold upon: and all of these call for more.

17. "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to
obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the
young eagles shall eat it."] — That man who is so lewd and un
natural as to mock his father and to depise his mother shall be
sure to be seized upon by the just judgments of God: his very
eyes, in whom that wicked and graceless scorn hath showed itself,
shall be picked out of his head by the greediest and fiercest
ravens, and the young eagles shall eat them : certainly God will
find some means to be avenged of him.

19. "The way of a man with a maid."] — The close convey
ances and subtle passages of a secret and crafty fornicator with a
cunning harlot.

21. " Four ivhich it cannot bear."] — There are four things
very intolerable :

23. " For an odious woman when she is married ; and an
handmaid that is heir to her mistress."] — A woman of lewd and
odious qualities and conditions, which can neither be reformed
nor endured by her husband; and a poor handmaid suddenly
advanced to a rich estate, grown now insolent and imperious with
her promotion.

29. " Yea, four are comely in going."] — Yea four, which carry
a good presence with them, and carry a kind of port and pleasure
in their motion.

31. " An horse (as it is in the margin); an he goat also ; and
a king, against whom there is no rising up."]— A well shaped
and beautiful horse proudly trampling ; a fair and well-coloured

PROVERBS XXX. 14.— XXXI. jo. 265

he goat ; and a magnificent prince that is honoured and acclaimed
of all his subjects.

32. "Lay thine hand upon thy mouth."] — Yet suppress it in
thyself, and be not so foolish and wicked as to utter it.

33. " Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and
the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood : so the forcing of
wrath bringeth forth strife."] — As the agitation of the milk in
the churn bringeth forth butter, and as the strong and vehe
ment wringing of the nostrils bringeth forth blood, so the ear
nest provocation of anger is the occasion of quarrels and much
strife.

XXXI. j. " The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his
mother taught him."] — The words which king Solomon, whom his
mother in a style of love termed Lemuel, received from that his
mother in his younger years, and that divine counsel which she
gave him.

2. " What, my son ? and what, the son of my womb ? and
what, the son of my vows?"] — What shall I then say unto thee,
O thou my son, the dear son of my womb, the son of my desires,
whom by my fervent prayers 1 obtained from God, not without
solemn vows of testifying my thankfulness for blessing me with
thee?

3. " Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that
which destroy eth kings/1] — Suffer not thyself so to be besotted
with the beauty of women, as that thou shouldest yield unto them
the strength of thy body and the best of thy thoughts ; neither
give thyself to those wanton courses which have been the bane of
many great princes.

4. " It is not for kings, 0 Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink
wine ; nor for princes strong drink."] — It is not fit for kings, 0
Solomon, to give themselves to excessive or pleasurable drinking
of wine, and to pouring in of strong intoxicating liquors.

6. " Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish."] —
Give rather strong drink to the man that is dejected in spirits, and
near to perishing through extremity of affliction.

8. " Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as
are appointed to destruction."] — Speak thou for them that are
not able to speak for themselves, and plead thou for them who are
undeservedly designed to destruction.

10. "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far
above rubies."] — Whosoever finds a wise, virtuous, modest wife,

266 PARAPHRASE UPON

let him know how to value her : let him esteem her worth above
all the precious rubies and diamonds of the world.

ii. " The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that
he shall have no need of spoil."] — Her husband may safely rely
upon her trust and care for the maintenance and enriching of his
family, so as he shall have no need to depend upon the spoil of
enemies for the enhancing of his wealth.

14. " She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food
from afar."] — She provideth all necessaries for her family at the
best hand, and after the manner of merchants sendeth far for a
good pennyworth.

17. "She girdeth her loins with strength."] — She addresseth
herself to go roundly and heartily about her business.

1 8. " She perceiveth that her merchandise is good : her candle
goeth not out by night."] — She findeth such sweetness and benefit
in her careful endeavours that she is encouraged to add vigilancy
to her painfulness ; and as if the day were not long enough, she
borrows of the night.

2i. " She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all
her household are clothed with scarlet."] — She knows those of
her family need not take care for the cold of winter ; for she hath
made both warm and rich provision of clothes for them, not only
for necessary use, but for ornament also.

23. " Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth
among the elders of the land.""] — Her husband sitting in the gates
of the city amongst other of the rulers is easily known from all
the rest, by the cost and neatness of that attire which she hath
provided for him above his fellows.

25. " Strength and honour are her clothing."] — She so de
means herself as that all her actions and carriages are full of ho
nour, and bewray a masculine strength and fortitude.

28, 29. " He praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtu
ously, but thou excellest them all."]— Her husband shall extol
her worth and virtue above all other women, saying, Other wives
have done and deserved well, but thou surpassest them all.

30. " Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain : but a woman
that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised."] — It is no trusting
either to outward favour or to plausibleness of disposition : as for
beauty, it is fading and transitory ; but the true fear of God is
that the comfort whereof will stick by us always ; the woman that
is endued therewith shall be ever praised.

PROVERBS XXXI. ji— ECCLESIASTES 1.8. 267

31. " Give her of the fruit of her hands ; and let her own works
praise her in the gates."] — Let her have that due praise which
she hath deserved ; and let her own works, as they have merited,
procure her a public applause in the world.

ECCLESIASTES.

I. 2. " Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities ;
all is vanity.'"] — All these earthly things, all that a man can either
do or attain, is utterly vain and ineffectual, in respect of any true
and perfect contentment or happiness which it can yield to the
soul ; since it is both fickle in the continuance, and unsatisfying in
the nature and worth thereof.

3. " What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh
under the sun ?"] — So far is all the labour of man which he takes
here on earth unable to make him truly happy, as that it yieldeth
him no during profit at all : both he and it are swept away by
death, as if they had never been.

4. " One generation passeth away, and another generation
cometh : but the earth abideth for ever."] — There is no stability
here : one generation of men goeth, another comes, none stayeth;
while yet the earth, the basest of all elements, and that from whence
we received this corruptible substance, continueth in her wonted
estate, and abides to the end of the world.

5. 6. " The sun also ariseth, &c. The wind goeth toward the
south, and turneth about unto the north ; it whirleth," &c.] — All
things are in motion : the sun and the wind whirl about the earth,
and return around, after their circuition, to the very place whence
they began their course.

7. "All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full;
unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return
again.""] — So do the waters also keep the same course of motion ;
for all rivers run into the sea, which again empties itself by secret
conveyances, through the channels of the earth, into those springs
whereof the rivers arise ; so as there is a continued circle in the
movings and interchanges of these creatures; but man passeth
away at once, and appeareth no more.

8. " All things are full of labour ; man cannot utter it : the eye
is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing."]—
All these creatures do, as it were, toil themselves in their motion ;
and all the world wherein they are is full of trouble and vexation :
it is not in the power of man to express the particulars ; no, the

268 PARAPHRASE UPON

very eye of man can never have seen enough, the ear of man can
never have heard enough, of the miserable vanities and irksome
conditions of this earthly life of ours.

9. " The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be ; and
that which is done is that which shall be done : and there is no
new thing under the sun."] — The eye and the ear can never come
to an end of their work ; for there is still an interchangeable suc
cession of their objects : that which hath formerly been shall be
again; and that which now is done shall, in the revolution of
times, come about again ; and there is neither an end of old occur
rences nor a beginning of new.

ii." There is no remembrance of former things ; neither shall
there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those
that shall come after."] — We easily mistake the condition of
all things; for those things which have been leave no remem
brance behind them ; and those things which are now present,
and those which shall be hereafter, shall be so forgotten of our
succeeding posterity as if they had never been.

15. " That which is crooked cannot be made straight; and
that which is wanting cannot be numbered."] — That Avhich is
crooked and perverse cannot by any human means be rectified
and reformed ; only the power of God, who made all things, can
change the natural misdisposition of them ; and there are such
store of defects and enormities, both in nature and practice, that
they cannot be numbered.

17. "I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness
and folly."] — I addicted myself moreover to the disquisition and
study of morality ; and therein I did not only labour to know
what pertained to wisdom, but also, on the contrary, to understand
what belongs to folly and madness, that I might perfectly compre
hend all the fashions and courses of men ; and I found this to be
no better than vexation of spirit.

1 8. " For in much wisdom is much grief : and he that increaseth
knowledge increaseth sorrow."] — For whosoever gets much wis
dom shall be sure to have much sorrow to boot ; since the more he
knows, the more cause of grief shall he find ; for both he shall still
see more that he cannot know, and in that which he doth know he
shall perceive so much vanity that shall pierce and humble his soul.

IT. i . " I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with
mirth."] — From that austere search of knowledge, I thought to
divert my thoughts unto mirth and pleasure.

ECCLESIASTES I. 9.— II. 15.

2. "I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doctli
it.""] — When I had taken a full trial of the free jollities and wild
delights of men, I cast them off with scorn : and said of laughter,
that it is both an effect and argument of a mad distemper of the
mind ; and of mirth, that it is a vain and unprofitable passion, not
fit for a wise man's entertainment.

3. " I sought in my heart to give myself unto wine, yet ac
quainting my heart with wisdom ; and to lay hold on folly, till I
might see what was that good/' &c.] — I did yet further resolve,
to give myself over to the pleasures of the palate and of the belly ;
to take my fill of wine and delicates, for the cheering up of my
dull and wearied spirits : yet so as that I made account not to cast
off the study of wisdom ; but therewithal to mix an experimental
knowledge of folly and debauchedness, till I might see whether
any true contentment might be found therein.

7. "I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in
my house."] — I bought and procured servants and maids ; and
had besides a numerous issue of those bond-servants which were
born and bred within my own family.

12. "For what can the man do that cometh after the king?
even that which hath been already done."] — If ever any man
could have found out full contentment, either in wisdom or folly,
certainly I should have done it ; for who can have the like means
that I have had for these ends ? Surely he that will come after
me, for a further disquisition of this matter, shall find that he can
neither do nor know aught but that which I have done and
known before him.

14. " The wise man's eyes are in his head ; but the fool walketh
in darkness : and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth
to them all."] — Wisdom is light, and folly is darkness ; the wise
man therefore walketh in this light, having the eyes of his under
standing clear, whereas the fool walketh in darkness ; yet for all
this difference, I perceived that events, whether good or evil, fall
alike unto them both.

15. "Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it
happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said
in my heart, that this also is vanity."]— To what purpose then
should I weary myself in the pursuit of wisdom, if, in respect of
the events of things, 1 shall speed no better than a fool ? And at
last I concluded, that both this indifferency of events, and this use,
that I was apt to make of it, is vanity.

270 PARAPHRASE UPON

1 6. " And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.""] — Doth not
the wise man die as well as the fool ? Doth he not die with as
much pain as the fool ? Is there not the same act and manner of
dissolution of both?

17. "Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought
under the sun is grievous unto me."] — I was therefore utterly
distasted with the present life ; since it yielded nothing but an
guish and vexation, even from the best works that I could
perform.

18, 19. "Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under
the sun : because I should leave it unto the man that shall be
after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or
a fool?"] — It doth not a little aggravate the vanity of these
earthly contentments, and my hatred of all my laborious and mag
nificent works, that, when I have done, I must leave them to a
successor, at all uncertainties ; for who knows whether he shall
be a wise man or a fool ?

20. " Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of
all the labour which I took under the sun."] — Therefore I did
bend my thoughts, what I might, to put my heart out of conceit
and hope of any good issue of all my earthly labours and endea
vours.

24. " There is nothing better for a man, than that he should
eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his
labour," &c.] — Yet of all vanities this is the best, since the life of
man is attended with so much sorrow and care ; what he may to
put off all grief and anxiety, to enjoy the good blessings of God,
to eat and to drink, and to take all lawful pleasure and delight in
the use of those good things he hath.

25. " For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more
than I?"] — For is there any man living that can procure more
excellent varieties of delicates than I ? Is there any whose means
will afford him opportunity of providing them with more speed
or ease than myself?

III. i. "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every
purpose under the heaven."]— Both God hath predetermined, in his
most wise counsel, a time and season, wherein all events shall
come to pass ; and hath put this wisdom into man, to make choice
of the times and opportunities for all his actions.

3. "A time to kill."] — There is a time, whether in a just war
or in a peaceable execution of justice, wherein it is seasonable and
warrantable to kill, &c.

ECCLESIASTES II. 1 6.— III. 19.

7. "A time to rend, and a time to sew."] — A time to rend our
garments, in main occasions of sorrow; and a time to make them
up again.

9. " What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he
laboureth?"] — What stability or during profit therefore can a
man expect from that which he doth, since there is such a change
able vicissitude in all actions and events ?

n." He hath made every thing beautiful in his time : also he
hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the
work that God maketh from the beginning to the end."] — He hath
made all his creatures in excellent order and proportion, and to
singular use in their proper seasons, though man is not able to
look into them ; for God hath in his justice so given up men to
the cares and studies of these worldly affairs, that they, being
taken up therewithal, cannot find out the wonderful works which
God hatli wrought from the beginning, and shall continue to work
until the end.

13. "And also that/'&c.] See chap. ii. 24.

14. "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for
ever : nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it : and
God doeth it, that men should fear before him."] — I know, that
whatsoever God doth, it is and shall be for ever, no otherwise
than he intended it to be : there is no altering of it, by aught
which our power can add to it or detract from it ; and this God
doth, that men may learn to adore and reverence his infinite
justice and wisdom and power.

15. "And God requireth that which is past."] — God calls for
back again, both an account and a renewing of that which is
already past.

17." For there is a time there for every purpose and for every
work."] — For, howsoever here all things are carried partially
and corruptly, yet there, before the just tribunal of the Almighty,
there shall be a time wherein every purpose and every work of
man shall appear as it is.

1 8. "I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of
men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that
they themselves are beasts."] — I thought in my heart concerning
the outward condition and wicked dispositions of the sons of men,
that if God would but let them see themselves, they would easily
perceive that they are no better than beasts.

1 9. " For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts ;

272 PARAPHRASE UPON

even one thin^ befalleth them: as the one dieth, so clieth the

O

other ; yea, they have all one breath ; so that a man hath no pre
eminence above a beast : for all is vanity."] — All outward events
befall alike to men and beasts : they breathe alike ; they part
with their breath alike : they both die by the same means, with
the same pain and reluctation ; neither is there any outward or
apparent thing in man above the beast, that can shelter him from
that common vanity to which both of them are subject, or distin
guish his condition from theirs.

20. " All go unto one place ; all are of the dust, and all turn
to dust again."] — Both, in respect of their bodily substance, go to
one place : out of the earth were they taken, and to the earth
they return.

21." Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and
the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth ?"] — And
howsoever they are fully differenced by the soul or spirit, which
informeth the man, whereof the beast is not capable, yet, in the
very issue and face of death, who can by his sense discern this
difference ? No man can see either the spirit of the man ascend
ing to heaven, or the spirit of the beast that vanisheth together
with the body : only this is discerned by rectified reason, and by
the illumination of God's spirit ; which assureth, yea, convinceth
us of the several, yea contrary condition of both.

22. "Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than
that a man should rejoice in his own works ; for that is his por
tion : for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?"]
— Since such is the vanity of man, and his condition in all out
ward things so like to that of brute creatures, I know no better
way for a man, than to make a cheerful use of God's good bless
ings here : for this is all the fruit and alleviation of all his painful
labours, which the earth can afford him ; without all anxious
cares of those things which shall be after him ; for when he hath
all done, who shall bring him to see how his heirs will spend or
save the estate which he hath carked to leave unto them.

IV. 2. "Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead
more than the living which are yet alive."] — I did in this prefer
the state of the dead before the living ; for that they are out of
the reach of this cruelty and oppression, which the living groan
under.

5. "The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own
flesh."] — The foolish, slothful man, folds his hands together and

ECCLESIASTES III. 20.— IV. 16. 273

will not work, and affamisheth himself with wilful idleness j rather
choosing to starve than labour ;

6. " Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands
full with travail and vexation of spirit."] — And is ready to say for
himself, A little with ease is better than a great deal with toil and
trouble.

8. "There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, ho
hath neither child nor brother : yet is there no end of all his la
bour," &c.] — I have noted a man that is single and solitary, that
hath neither wife nor child nor brother to whom he mio-ht leave

O

his estate, and yet this man toils and drudges incessantly, &c.

9. "Two are better than one; because they have a good re
ward for their labour."] — Society is a thing of much comfort and
benefit : upon every occasion two are better than one ; two are
able to undertake and perform that which one cannot, and there
fore may well expect a good issue of their labours.

1 2. " And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him ;
and a threefold cord is not quickly broken."] — And if an adversary
be too strong for a man alone, yet if the weaker be assisted by the
strength of a second, he shall be able to withstand and overcome :
and as it is thus in the society of two, so it holds in a proportion
of more ; a cord of two twists is strong, but if it be treble twisted
it is not easily broken.

13. "Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish
king, who will no more be admonished."] — There is a great dif
ference betwixt a child and an old man, betwixt a king and a
beggar ; yet a poor child if he be wise is better than an old king
if he be foolish and perversely settled in wickedness.

14. "For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas also he
that is born in his kingdom becometh poor."] — For that poor wise
man may from a base and miserable condition be advanced to
highest dignity; whereas the foolish commander that was born
great may become needy and wretched.

15. "I considered all the living which walk under the sun,
with the second child that shall stand up in his stead."] — I have
noted it to be the common practice of the world, even generally of
all living men. that they are apt still to regard the successor, and
to neglect the father, though of great desert, in comparison of the
son, that shall inherit the crown after him.

1 6. " There is no end of all the people, even of all that have
been before them : they also that come after shall not rejoice in

BP. HALL, VOL. III. T

274 PARAPHRASE UPON

him."] — The world hath ever been and ever will be thus incon
stant, and disaffected to the present government, how wise and
just soever : still they, as impatient of the yoke, will be complain-
inw of that command under which they are, and not yield so cheer-

O * "

ful and thankful obedience as they ought.

V. i . " Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and
be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools :" &c.] —
When thou goest up to the temple of God, look carefully with
what affections thou presentest thyself there : see that thou have
a mind free from worldly cares and distractions ; and think not
that the very outward work of a sacrifice, formally offered, can
serve thy turn : this imagination is for a foolish and ignorant
heart ; but know, that God looks for a careful and diligent at
tendance upon his ordinance, and requires an attentive ear to his
word, &c.

2. "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be
hasty to utter any thing before God : for God is in heaven, and
thou upon earth : therefore let thy words be few."] — Be not thou
rash and over hasty in the engaging of thyself by vows unto God,
but be well advised, both what thou undertakes!, and how thou
shalt perform it; and let those prayers which thou shalt pour
forth unto God be well digested in thy thoughts, for thou hast to
do with a pure and holy, as also with a glorious and omnipotent
God, who dwelleth in the heaven ; whereas thou, a base silly crea
ture upon earth, art open to his all-seeing eye, and obnoxious to
his almighty power; let therefore thy vows be both rare and
solemn, and thy prayers free from loquacity and idle babblings :

3. "For a dream cometh through the multitude of business;
and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words."] — For as in
a multitude of business there will be troublesome and confused
dreams, so in a multitude of words there will be futility and
error.

4. "For he hath no pleasure in fools."] — It is the part of a
fool to vow that which either he cannot or will not perform ; and
God takes no pleasure in those that are thus impiously foolish.

6. " Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin ; neither
say thou before the angel, that it was an error : wherefore should
God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine
hands?"] — Suffer not thy tongue, through the rashness of thy
vow, to make it and thy whole self guilty of a sin before God, and
obnoxious to judgment ; neither think to excuse it before God and

ECCLESIASTICS V. 1-14. 275

his angels by a plea of error. Why shouldst thou draw God's
anger upon thee by the sinful temerity of thy vow, so far as that
lie should plague thee with an utter destruction.

7. "For in the multitude of dreams and many words there arc
also divers vanities : but fear thou God."] — For as there are
many vain phantasies in the multitude of dreams, so surely there
are many hateful and dangerous vanities in the multitude of hasty
vows ; but thou, settle thou the fear of God in thy heart, and that
shall ever both guide and preserve thy tongue.

8. " If thou, &c. marvel not at the matter : for lie that is
higher than the highest regardeth ; and there be higher than
they."] — Be not amazed or dismayed, as if all things were let
loose, and as if these earthly things were not orderly swayed by
a wise and just Providence ; for, as God hath appointed kings
and princes over men, so he hath appointed his spiritual creatures
in a degree above them, and himself is infinitely above all the de
grees of them.

9. " Moreover the profit of the earth is for all : the king him
self is served by the field."] — Surely there is excellent and neces
sary use of husbandry : whence have we the good things whereby
our life is preserved, but from the fruitful bounty of the earth ?
Even the states of kings cannot well subsist without a due culture
of the earth.

u." When goods increase, they are increased that eat them :
and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the behold
ing of them with their eyes?"] — If a man have great store of
lands, and much stock in his hands, there must be many hands
employed in the managing of it ; so that as his means are greater,
so the mouths that spend it are more : and what gaineth the
owner hereby above the servant, more than this, that he sees his
goods both brought in and wasted ; whereof himself can take no
more part than to feed and clothe him ?

13. "Riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt."] — I
have noted those riches which men account blessings, to turn to
the great harm and mischief of the owners ; both of their bodies,
and souls, and lives, and estates : for, besides their difficulty in
getting, and care in keeping, how ordinarily are they the occa
sions of violence offered to their persons, of unjust suggestions of
capital crimes against their lives ! &c.

14." But those riches perish by evil travail : and he begetteth a
son, and there is nothing in his hand."]— And those very riches

T 2

276 PARAPHRASE UPON

have I seen to vanish away under the owner's hand, in the midst
of all his toil and travail : so as the son whom he begets shall have
nothing at all left him of that wealth wherewith his father seemed
to abound, neither shall the father have aught to leave him.

17. " All his davs also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much
sorrow and wrath with his sickness."] — He abridgeth himself of all
comfort through his too eager pursuit of wealth, and both pincheth
his body and tortureth his mind with many vexations and discon
tentments.

20. " For he shall not much remember the days of his life ;
because God answereth him in the joy of his heart."] — His days
go away merrily, and seem short, for that God gives him cheerful
ness and contentment in the fruition of what he hath.

VI. 2. " Yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a
stranger eateth it."] — Yet God hath not given him a free heart
to take comfort and benefit in the use of his riches, but rather
hath given him up to such a besotted ness therewith, that he can
not find in his heart to bestow any good thing upon himself, but
saves it for a stranger that shall come after him.

3. " If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years,
&c. and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no
burial ; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he."] — Let a
man live to never so fair and full an age, as long life is indeed a
blessing of God ; and let him be as full of children as of years, as
children also are the gift of God ; yet, if that man scant and
abridge himself of all his due comforts here through his own
miserableness, and after his death be debarred of an honest and
comely sepulture, I say that an untimely birth is in a condition
less ill than he.

4. " For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness,
and his name shall be covered with darkness. "] — For that abor
tive birth comes into the world without all noise or use, and
passes away obscurely without notice ; and as it lived not to have
a name, so the name and memory of it vanisheth into darkness
and oblivion.

5. " This hath more rest than the other."] — He hath been
freed by so early a death from those vexations which the old
covetous man puts himself unto.

6. " Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath
he seen no good: do not all go to one place?"] — Yea, though he
have lived a thousand years twice told, yet, when it is past, what

ECCLESIASTES V. 17.— VI. 12. 277

is he the better for that ? Is he not now in the same state with
the abortive ? do not both of them go alike unto dust ?

7. " All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appe
tite is not filled."] — Indeed, all the labour of man should be, and
ordinarily is, for the preservation of his life; but the covetous
man toils, he knows not for what ; and though nature be content
with a little, yet his appetite of having is never satisfied.

8. " For what hath the wise more than the fool ? what hath
the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?" q. d. but
the same with the rich?] — In respect of the outward mainte
nance of this life, what can the wise man have which the fool
may not ? Both of them may and must live by meat : either of
them may come to abound or want. What hath the rich more
than the poor man, that knows how to live? his superfluity is
nothing to his life.

9. " Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the
desire."] — It is far better for a man to enjoy that present good
which is before his eyes, than to discruciate and rack his thoughts
with an insatiable desire of what he hath not, or perhaps cannot
have.

10. " That which hath been is named already, and it is known
that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier
than he."] — There is a wise and infinite providence of God under
which eminently amongst the other creatures man is, whom
God hath noted and designed out with all his qualities and en
dowments, and hath determined to him all his conditions and
events ; neither can he think to struggle himself out from the
mighty and overruling power of his Creator.

11. "Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what
is man the better?"] — As man is vanity, so are those things
which he affecteth ; where there are many things therefore, there
must needs be an increase of vanity ; what is a man the better
therefore for having more vanities besides his own ?

12. " For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all
the, &c. as a shadow ? for who can tell a man what shall be after
him under the sun?"] — AVe are commonly subject to mistakings
in our opinions concerning good things : we ofttimes take that
for good and profitable which is indeed harmful to us either in
the kind or quantity of it ; and if in this fleeting and vanishing
life we be thus ignorant in present things, how much more in
future ! Who can tell a man what shall be after him ?

278 PARAPHRASE UPON

VII. i. And the day of death than the day of one's birth."] —
The day of a good and faithful man's death is much better than
the day of his birth ; for his death puts an end to those miseries
which his birth begins, and begins those happinesses which the
present life is not capable of.

2. " For that is the end of all men ; and the living will lay it
to his heart."] — For that death, which is the occasion of such
mourning, is the end of all men ; and those that are wise amongst
the living will carefully bethink themselves of it, and make due
preparation for it.

6. " As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter
of the fool."] — A fire of thorns under a pot makes a loud noise
with the crackling thereof for a time, but the blaze is soon out ;
so doth the mirth and laughter of a fool ; after some short sem
blance of joy it vanisheth to nothing.

7. " Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift
destroyeth the heart."] — Extremity of oppression is enough to
distemper a very wise man ; and bribes are enough to corrupt
and destroy the heart of him that receives them.

8. " Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof:
and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit."] —
There is much doubt and uncertainty in the beginning of things,
whereas there is full assurance in the end ; the end therefore of
a thing is better than the beginning : for indeed, both the begin
ning and proceeding of all affairs do but drive at a good end ;
and a meek and patient-spirited man, that can quietly wait for
the end and event of things, is better than he that is proud and
impetuous, who violently rusheth upon all enterprises, and will
needs force his own terms.

9. "Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry : for anger resteth
in the bosom of fools."] — Do not give way to a rash and sudden
anger ; for this techy and choleric disposition argues much folly
and misgovernment in the man that is swayed with it.

10. " Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days
were better than these ? for thou dost not inquire wisely concern
ing this."] — Be not thou discontentedly querulous at the present
condition ; as to complain how bad these times are in respect of
the former ; and to murmur at the providence of God, as if there
were some slackness or neglect therein ; for this is a foolish
thought of thine, and an unjust : rather do thou, in an humble
thankfulness and submission, make use of the present.

ECCLESIASTES VII. 1-17.

11. "Wisdom is good with an inheritance.'1''] — If a man have a
great estate, and wisdom to use it, he may do great matters, and
is very happy therein.

1 2. " For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence : but
the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them
that have it."] — Many a one hath been preserved by his wisdom,
and many have been preserved by their money, so as both toge
ther must needs be an excellent defence ; but, if they must be
severed, wisdom and knowledge must needs be the better, as that
which both can safeguard the present life and give a better unto
the owner of it.

13. " Consider the work of God : for who can make that
straight, which he hath made crooked?"] — Do not complain of
times and events, but consider well the wise and just and powerful
proceedings of God; for when he hath thought good, for the
punishment of men's sins, to give them up to disorder and per-
verseness, it is not in the power of human means to rectify them.

j 4. " But in the day of adversity consider : God also hath set
the one over against the other, to the end that man should find
nothing after him."] — In the day of adversity, bethink thyself of
the author of thine affliction, and of the manifold grounds of
patience which God hath laid before thee ; for God hath given
interchanges of welfare and adversity, that man might find no just
cause to complain of his proceedings.

15. " There is a just man that pcrisheth in his righteousness.""]
— There is a just and innocent man that miscarrieth, notwith
standing his righteousness, through the cruelty and injustice of
oppressors.

1 6. " Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over
wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?"] — Be not thou too
rigid and rigorous in exacting the extremity of justice upon every
occasion ; neither do thou affect too much semblance and ostenta
tion of more justice and perfection than thou hast or canst attain :
neither do thou arrogate more wisdom to thyself than is in thee ;
nor curiously seek and search into those mysteries which God
would not have revealed : for why shouldest thou bring upon thee
the displeasure and judgments of God by this proud and sinful
affectation ?

17. " Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish : why
shouldest thou die before thy time?"]— As I would not have thee
too just and too wise, so 1 would not have thcc run into the other

280 PARAPHRASE UPON

extreme : every degree of wickedness is too much : do not let
thyself loose to any evil ; neither yield thyself over to a willing
ignorance and foolish neglect of wisdom : for why shouldst thou
provoke God to hasten his just judgments upon thee to thine un
timely destruction ?

1 8. " It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this ; yea, also
from this withdraw not thine hand : for he that feareth God shall
come forth of them all."] — It is good and sure, to walk in a mean
betwixt both these extremes ; so to beware of severity, and too
much profession of wisdom, that thou neglect riot the other charge
of avoiding looseness and folly : he that feareth God shall by him
be kept in an holy mean betwixt both these sinful and dangerous
excesses.

21. " Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken ; lest
thou hear thy servant curse thee."] — He that would live in
peace must put up many injuries, especially of the tongue : be
not too eagerly inquisitive after the words that are spoken con
cerning thee, lest thou hear those of thine own family speak evil
of thee.

23. "All this have I proved by wisdom : I said, I will be wise ;
but it was far from me."] — I thought to make all these observa
tions and experiments, and made account to gain a great measure
of wisdom ; but the more I knew, the less I was satisfied, and the
more I found that I wanted.

24. " That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find
it out?"] — So deep is wisdom hid, and so far off from our reach,
that it is not in the power of man to find it out ;

25. " And to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness
and madness."] — As also to note the wicked courses of foolish,
yea, of mad sinners, both in their actions and in their events.

26. " And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose" &c.]
— And I have found, by woful experience, the mischief and dead-
liness of an alluring beauty, &c.

27. " Counting one by one, to find out the account."] — Curi
ously searching and examining of both sexes, as it were, by the
poll, one by one, to give a just account of the estate of them both.

28. " Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not : one man
among a thousand have I found ; but a woman among all those
have I not found.11] — Which yet still I do earnestly seek; but
find no cause to alter my judgment herein : this I profess to be
the issue of all my inquisition ; that, though it be very rare and

ECCLESIASTES VII. 18.— VIII. 8. 281

hard to find one good of either sex, yet more difficult and strange
to find such a one in that weaker sex : a good man is rare, but a
good woman more.

29. " Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man up
right; but they have sought out many inventions."] — Now this
pravity and corruption, which I find in both sexes, I do not cast
upon their first creation : no ; rather I do herein justify God, as
finding and professing that it pleased him to make man holy and
upright : all our depravation is from ourselves ; our first parents,
created in perfect innocency, would needs follow the devices of
their own hearts and the suggestions of the common enemy, and
we their sinful posterity do nothing but devise further means of
our own ruin.

VIII. i. " Who is as the wise man ? and who knoweth the in
terpretation of a thing ? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine,
and the boldness of his face shall be changed."] — What creature
under heaven is so excellent as a wise man ? He only can find
out the riddles of nature and the secrets of art : it is his wisdom
that makes him gracious, and reverently respected of all men : it
is that which alters and changes both his disposition and carriage,
and of rude and harsh makes him gentle and ingenuous.

2. " And that in regard of the oath of God."] — For that thou
hast, by the sacred name of God, sworn homage and allegiance
to him.

3. "Be not hasty to go out of his sight : stand not in an evil
thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him."] — Do not offer to
fling out from him as in a fury or chafe ; neither think thou to
face out an evil action before him ; for he hath power in his hand
to revenge these insolencies at pleasure.

5. " A wise man's heart discerneth both time and judg
ment."] — The heart of the wise man discerneth both the time
when every thing should be done, and the best way how it should
be done.

6. " Because to every purpose there is time and judgment,
therefore the misery of man is great upon him."] — For certainly,
there is both a proper time for all our actions, and a meet way
for the doing of them ; which because men ordinarily do neither
understand nor observe, they run themselves into great incon
venience.

8. " There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain
the spirit ; neither hath he power in the day of death : and there

282 PARAPHRASE UPON

is no discharge in that war ; neither shall wickedness deliver those
that are given to it."] — No man hath power to keep his soul when
God calls for it ; neither hath he power to protract the day of
death any longer : there is no possibility of avoiding that last con
flict : the bold and presumptuous wickedness of men cannot deliver
them from it ; yea, rather shall bring the evil day upon them.

9. " There is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to
his own hurt,"]— It falleth out sometime, that that sovereignty
which was ordained for the good of the people turns unto their
hurt, and withal to the no less harm of the unjust manager
thereof.

10. "I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from
the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where
they had so done."] — Such a wicked ruler I have seen pompously
buried, who had come and gone from the sacred seat of judicature
with great state ; and with no less to his grave : yet I have known
him utterly forgotten, if not odiously remembered, in the city
where he had exercised authority.

14. " Unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the
wicked."] — Which speed ill, and are outwardly punished, as the
wicked deserve to be.

15. "Then I commended mirth, because," &c.] — I resolved that
it was good for man to be cheerful in his calling, and the good
and holy use of God's blessings.

IX. i. " No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is
before them."] — No man can by the success of these outward
things judge and know whether he be in the love or hatred
of God.

3. " And madness is in their heart while they live, and after
that they go to the dead."] — Their heart is resolved to go madly
and desperately forward in their wickedness while they live ; and
when they have done thus lewdly, they drop into the grave, if not
into hell.

4. " For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope :
for a living dog is better than a dead lion."] — If we compare the
estate of the living and the dead, whether in itself or in respect
of the present world, no doubt that of the living is better ; for
while we live here we may be still in hope either of amending or
of receiving further graces and blessings ; both which are, in re
gard of this life, cut off from the dead ; and, as our common pro
verb runs, the most vile and contemptible of all creatures, the dog

ECCLESIASTES VIII. 9.— IX. 1 1 .

that is alive, is better than the most generous of all beasts, the
lion, which is now dead.

5. " For the living know that they shall die : but the dead
know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward."] —
However, in respect of a better life and the glorious estate of the
soul, the case is quite contrary ; yet, in reference to our present
and sensible condition, the living know something ; if no more
but this, that they must die : but that the dead know nothing at all
of these earthly occurrences ; neither have they any more part or
interest in these affairs, or any sense of their increase or diminution.

6. "Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now
perished ; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any
thing that is done under the sun."] — Also, together with their
senses, their affections are ceased : their love and their hatred of
their wonted objects are now perished ; their envy and their de
sires are gene ; neither have they aught to do with any thing
that is done here below.

8. " Let thy garments be always white ; and let thy head lack
no ointment."] — Testify the joy of thy heart by the neatness and
brightness of thy garments : and let thy head lack no store of
sweet and precious oils, to cheer thy spirits and perfume thy skin.

10. " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might ;
for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the
grave whither thou goest."] — Whatever occasion of honest delight
offer itself unto thee, take it ; and whatever opportunity is offered
thee of doing good, embrace it gladly : and do it accordingly with
all thy heart, for thou hast but a while to do it and to enjoy it,
since that in the grave, whither thou goest, there is no work to be
done, no device to be contrived, no use of knowledge or wisdom.

u. ' ' I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not
to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the
wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to
men of skill ; but time and chance happeneth to them all."] — I
saw and observed, that here on earth all things do not fall out ac
cording to the probability of second causes, but by an overruling
of Providence : the swiftest man doth not always win the race, nor
the strong prevail in battle ; the wise man doth not always get
maintenance, nor the prudent wealth, nor the skilful approbation
and favour ; but every one in his time hath a several issue and
event, according to the predetermination of the Almighty, beyond
or contrary to his own hopes.

284 PARAPHRASE UPON

12. "For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that
are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the
snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, Avhen it
falleth suddenly upon them."]— For man cannot foreknow the time
of his death or danger ; but, even as the heedless fish runs un
awares into the net, and the silly bird into the snare, so are we
wretched men caught in the snare and net of evil occurrents in
the time which God hath secretly set, and surprised suddenly with
unavoidable calamities.

14. " There was a little city, and few men within it; and there
came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bul
warks against it :"] — There were many men in it, yet but one wise
man : the number of the other was helpless if not burdenous : that
wise man was poor, and that poor man, by a stratagem, unthought
of by the rest, found means to rescue and deliver that city ; yet
when he had done, no man regarded that man, because he was
poor in estate though rich in wisdom.

17. " The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the
cry of him that ruleth among fools."] — The Avords of a wise poor
man, though spoken softly out of a fearful and lowly kind of bash-
fulness, are worthy of more respect than the imperious loud cla
mours of him that rules among fools.

X. i. "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send
forth a stinking savour : so doth a little folly him that is in repu
tation for wisdom and honour."] — Let the ointment be never so
fragrant, yet if dead flies be suffered to corrupt in it, the sweet smell
thereof will be turned to a loathsome stench ; so, let a man be in
never so good reputation for wisdom and honour, yet some one
foolish humour and weak miscarriage of his mars and stains his
estimation.

2. " A wise man's heart is at his right hand ; but a fool's heart
at his left."] — A wise man's heart is apt to give meet counsels,
and to suggest dexterous and ready ways for the performance of
any enterprise ; whereas the fool's heart and hand goes sinisterly
to work, and is utterly unapt to all good uses.

3. "Yea also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his
wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he isa, fool."] —
Yea, let the fool but walk by the way, and his very motion and
gesture shows what he is, and proclaims his want of wit : much
more do his words and actions bewray him.

4. " If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee. leave not thy

ECCLESIASTES IX.i2.-X. 14. 285

place; for yielding pacifieth great offences."] — If the prince be
angry with thee, do not in a stomach or froward pettishness, give
up thine office, but yield way humbly to that displeasure, and
seek by submission to satisfy his indignation.

5. "As an error ivhich proceedeth from the ruler :"] — As an
error that proceeds from princes in the ill choice which they make
of those whom they promote.

6. " Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low
place."] — That foolish and unfit men are advanced to places of
dignity and employments in public affairs, while those that are truly
able, both for their parts and estate, and are well worthy of emi
nent places, are neglected and disregarded.

7. " I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as
servants upon the earth."] — Which, what is it other, than as if ser
vants should ride on horseback while princes walk by their stir
rups, as their grooms on foot in a servile attendance ?

8. " He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it ; and whoso breaketh
an hedge, a serpent shall bite him."] — It is a dangerous matter
to attempt any thing against authority and established govern
ment : whosoever doth so doth but dig a pit whereinto himself
shall fall ; and while he is breaking up an old hedge is unawares
stung with an adder that lay under those bushes.

9. " Whoso removcth stones shall be hurt therewith ; and he
that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby."] — Such a one
doth as the man, who, while he labours to remove an old heap of
stones, bruiseth his feet ; or as he who, cleaving of wood, cuts him
self with the axe, or receives some of the splinters into his eye.

10. "If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then
must he put to more strength : but wisdom is profitable to di
rect."] — Strength without wit prevails not : if the axe be blunt,
and want an edge, there needs much force to be put to it in vain :
wisdom doth as it were whet the edge of the axe, and directs to
do that with ease which otherwise cannot be achieved with much
labour.

11. " Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment ; and a
babbler is no better."] — As the serpent which is not charmed will
bite or sting the passenger, so will a busy and babbling detractor
wound the absent with his malicious tongue.

12. "But the lips of a fool will swallow up himself."] — The
words of a fool will be the occasion of his own undoing.

14. "A fool also is full of words : a man cannot telhvhat shall

286 PARAPHRASE UPOX

be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?"] — A fool is
full of words : a man cannot tell what he would have, or what he
would say ; and what the end of his speech or drift will be no man
can tell.

15. "The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them,
because he knoweth not how to go to the city."] — Fools tire out
themselves with laboursoine and needless circuitions ; and out of
simplicity fetch large compasses over untracked ways, because
they do not so much as know the beaten road to the city, which
is both easy and short.

1 6. " Woe to thee, 0 land, when thy king is a child, and thy
princes eat in the morning !"] — Woe to thee, 0 land, whose king,
being unmeet, for age or impotency, to sway the public govern
ment, is not assisted with temperate and orderly peers, but such
as spend that time which they should set apart to justice in riot
and revelling.

17. " Blessed art thou, 0 land, when thy king is the son of
nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not
for drunkenness!"] — Blessed art thou, 0 land, whose king is
royally descended, and whose princes are sober and temperate ;
eating and drinking seasonably, and without excess, as those that
would nourish their health, and not their luxury and disorder.

19. "A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry:
but money answereth all things."'] — Feasts are for jollity and
pleasure, and wine is for mirth ; but it is money that must pro
vide these and all other helps, whether for delight or necessity.

20. " Curse not the king, no not in thy thought ; and curse
not the rich in thy bedchamber : for a bird of the air shall carry
the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter."] — Do
not entertain so much as an undutiful thought in thine heart con
cerning thy sovereign, neither do thou speak evil of great persons
that are in authority, so much as in thy bedchamber, for God will
find means to bring it out and revenge it ; and rather than it
should be revealed, God will cause the very fowls of the air to
disclose it.

XI. i . " Cast thy bread upon the waters : for thou shalt find it
after many days."] — Bestow thy beneficence upon them which are
utterly unlikely ever to return it ; for he that seeth in secret,
will, when thou hast forgotten it, restore it unto thee with an
happy increase.

2. " Give a portion to seven, and also to eight ; for thou know-

ECCLESIASTES X. 15.— XI. 8. 287

est not what evil shall be upon the earth."] — Be not strait-
handed in thine alms, but give them liberally to all that have
need, for thou knowest not how soon thou mayest have need of
others' bounty, nor how soon thou shalt be bereaved of an oppor
tunity to give thine own.

3. "If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon
the earth : and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the
north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be."]
— As the clouds which are full of rain empty themselves upon
earth, so the liberal heart that is full of bounty empties itself in
seasonable contributions ; and which way soever thou castest thy
beneficence, whether to the south or north, thou shalt be sure
there to find it, through God's gracious remuneration, with ad
vantage.

4. " He that observeth the wind shall not sow ; and he that
regardeth the clouds shall not reap/'] — Let not every circumstance
of vain fear discourage thee from doing good and distributing : he
that is too curious to observe every wind that blows shall never
find opportunity to sow.

5. "As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor
how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child :
even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all."] —
As thou knowest not how or when the soul comes into the body ;
or how and by what degrees the child is formed, in all the several
parts thereof, within the womb of the mother ; so, much less canst
thou know those secret works of God which he will do in time to
come.

6. " In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold
not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either
this or that, or whether," &c.] — Be thou constant and assiduous
in doing good, and desist not at any time : if one of thy endeavours
succeed not, yet another may ; and thou knowest not which of
them may speed the best.

7 . " Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the
eyes to behold the sun."] — Indeed life is sweet, and light gives
cheerfulness unto our life ; it is a comfortable thing to enjoy the
benefit thereof, which our eye sends into our soul.

8. " But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all ; yet
let him remember the days of darkness ; for they shall be many.
All that cometh is vanity."] — But let a man live, and enjoy both
the light and all the pleasures and delights of this life, never so

288 PARAPHRASE UPON

many years; yet, let him bethink himself of that darkness of death,
and the grave whereinto he is entering, and consider the long
continuance of that darkness, in comparison of this short and mo
mentary life and light ; he shall have no lust to surfeit of these
things, but shall confess that all that comes is vanity.

9. " Rejoice, 0 young man, in thy youth ; and let thy heart
cheer thee in the days of thy youth."]— Go to then, 0 thou vain
young man, take thy full scope of pleasure in thy youth, &c.
Deny nothing to thyself, that either thine eye seeth or thy heart
desireth ; live wantonly and jocundly ; but be thou assured that a
day of reckoning will come, when, for all these wild and lawless
courses of thine, God will call thee to a just and severe judgment.

10. "Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away
evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity."] —
Therefore strive to refrain all thine headstrong passions, and rid
thyself of those vicious affections and dispositions whereto thou art
subject ; for thy childhood and youth, wherein thou now vainly
rejoicest, are monentary things, gone and past, ere thou canst find
thou enjoyest them.

XII. 2. " While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars,
be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain :"] — Before
thine eyes grow dim with age, so as thou dost not clearly discern
the sun, the moon, or stars ; and before the evils and miseries of
ace succeed one another in thee, in a woful vicissitude :

o

3. " In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble,
and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease
because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be
darkened."] — Before the time that thine arms, which are the
guard of this thy house of clay, shall tremble with palsies ; and
thy legs, which were thy strong supporters, shall bow themselves ;
and thy teeth grind slowly and difficultly, becsuse they are few ;
and thine eyes, which are as glasses in the windows of the head,
be dusky and darkened :

4. ' ' And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound
of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird,
and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;"] — When
the street doors shall be shut upon thee, as now retired to thine
own home, without care of others' visitations or affairs ; when thy
slow feeding shall have made thee unfit for other men's tables ;
when every little noise, but of a bird, shall wake thee out of thy
sleep ; and when thy spirits shall be so dull and dejected, that

ECCLESIASTES XI. 9.— XII. 12. 289

thou shall take no pleasure in the hearing of the most melodious
music ;

5. " Also ivhen they shall be afraid of that which is high, and
fears shall be in the way, and the almond-tree shall flourish, and
the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail : because
man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the
streets."] — When thy decrepit age shall make thee so unfit to
move, that thou shalt be afraid of every rub or clod that lies in
thy way ; when the white blossoms of age shall cover thy head ;
and every light thing, though it be but of the weight of a grass
hopper, shall seem burdensome to thee ; and all those lusts and
desires which haunted thy stronger times, are now gone and past :
for there is no way but this one ; man goeth to his long home,
the grave; and the mourners, in an hired formality, go about
the streets :

6. " Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be
broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel
broken at the cistern."] — Before ever all thy natural and vital
spirits be utterly exhausted, and all the functions and offices of
life be quite discharged, which shall be in the last act of death ;
for as when the cord is loosed, and the bucket broken, and the
pitcher broken at the well, or the wheel at the cistern, no water
can any more be drawn ; so when these vital parts fail, can there
be no longer protraction of life.

10. " The preacher sought to find out acceptable words : and
that which was written was upright, even words of truth."] —
The preacher sought to find out excellent and divine sentences,
and matters of high and singular use, and such he hath indeed
attained unto ; for that which is Avritten by him is full of admir
able wisdom and truth.

n. ' ' The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened
by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd."]
— The words of the wise and holy prophets of God are of singular
benefit, for they are as goads to prick us forward to all good
duties : yea, they go yet deeper ; they are as nails driven up to
the head by gracious teachers, so as they cannot easily be pulled
out : which words, however they be delivered to us by several
messengers, yet they come all originally from one hand, even from
the great Pastor of his Church, the Word of his Father.

12. " And further, by these, my son, be admonished : of mak
ing many books there is no end ; and much study is a weariness

UP. HALL, VOL. III. U

290 PARAPHRASE UPON

of the flesh/']— By these divine words, O my son, do thou content
thyself to be admonished ; not roving in thy desires after multi
tude of other volumes whereof there is no end ; in the compiling
and reading of which there is much toil and weariness of the flesh,
and much expense of the spirits.

SOLOMON'S SONG OF SONGS PARAPHRASED.

[The Paraphrase on the Song of Solomon was published for the first time
(I believe) in 1614, under the title of " An open and plain Paraphrase upon
the Song of Songs which is Solomon's." The Author appears to have
grounded it for the most part, though with frequent variations, upon the text
of the Geneva Bible. When the whole Paraphrase upon the " Hard Texts
of Scripture" was published twenty years afterwards, the text adopted, includ
ing Solomon's Song, was that of K. James's Bible. It has been thought
better to restore the Text, together with the Dedication, as it stood in the
edition of 1614, some passages of the Paraphrase being more appropriate to
that text than to the other. In that edition it was placed (as no doubt it was
written) immediately after the Treatise entitled " Solomon's Divine Arts,"
which accounts for the allusion at the commencement of the Dedication.]

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, MY SINGULAR GOOD LORD AND PATRON,

EDWARD LORD DENNY, BARON OF WALTHAM,

ALL GRACE AND HAPPINESS.

Right Honourable, — When I would have withdrawn my hand from divine
Solomon, the heavenly elegance of this his best SONG drew me unto it, and
would not suffer me to take off mine eyes or pen. Who can read it with
understanding, and not be transported from the world, from himself? and be
any otherwhere, save in heaven, before his time ? I had rather spend my
time in admiration than apology. Surely here is nothing that savours not of
ecstasy and spiritual ravishment; neither was there ever so high and pas
sionate a speculation delivered by the Spirit of God to mankind : which by
how much more divine it is, by so much more difficult. It is well if these
mysteries can be found out by searching. Two things make the Scriptures
hard, Prophecies and Allegories ; both are met in this : but the latter so
sensibly to the weakest eyes, that this whole Pastoral Marriage-Song (for
such it is) is no other than one Allegory sweetly continued. WThere the
deepest things of God are spoken in riddles, how can there be but obscurity
and diverse construction ? All judgments will not, I know, subscribe to my
senses ; yet I have been fearful and spiritually nice in my choice, not often
dissenting from all Interpreters, always from the unlikeliest. It would be too
tedious to give my account for every line ; let the learned scan and judge.
Whatever others' censures be, your Honour's was favourable, and (as to all
mine) full of love and encouragement. That therefore which it pleased you
to allow from my pen vouchsafe to receive from the press ; more common,

THE SONG OF SOLOMON I. 1-4. 291

not less devoted to you. What is there of mine that doth not joy in your
name, and boast itself in serving you ? to whose soul and people I have long
agone addicted myself and my labours, and shall ever continue

Your Lordship's in all humble and unfeigned duty,

JOS. HALL.

THE SONG OF SOLOMON.

DIALOGUE.

The Church to Christ.

I. 2. " Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth : for thy
love is better than wine."] — 0 that he would bestow upon me
the comfortable testimonies of his love ; and that he would vouch
safe me yet a nearer conjunction with himself; as in glory here
after, so for the mean time in his sensible graces ! For thy love,
O ray Saviour, and these fruits of it, are more sweet unto me than
all earthly delicates can be to the bodily taste.

3. " Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is
as an ointment poured out: therefore the virgins love thee."] —
Yea, so wonderfully pleasant are the savours of those graces that
are in thee, wherewith I desire to be endued, that all whom thou
hast blessed with the sense thereof make as high and dear ac
count of thy Gospel, whereby they are wrought, as of some pre
cious ointment or perfume ; the delight whereof is such that here
upon the pure and holy souls of the faithful place their whole
affection upon thee.

4. " Draw me, we will run after thee : the king hath brought
me into his chambers: we will rejoice in thee and be glad, we
will remember thy love more than wine : the righteous do love
thee."] — Pull me therefore out from the bondage of my sins :
deliver me from the world, and do thou powerfully incline my
will and affections towards thee ; and in spite of all temptations
give me strength to cleave unto thee ; and then both I and all
those faithful children thou hast given me shall all at once with
speed and earnestness walk to thee and with thee; yea, when
once my royal and glorious Husband hath brought me both into
these lower rooms of his spiritual treasures on earth, and into his
heavenly chambers of glory, then will we rejoice and be glad in
none but thee, which shalt be all in all to us ; then will we cele
brate and magnify thy love above all the pleasures we found upon
earth ; for all of us, thy righteous ones, both angels and saints, are
inflamed with the love of thee.

U 2

PARAPHRASE UPON

5. " I am black, O daughters of Jerusalem, but comely ; if I
be as the tents of Kedar, yet I am as the curtains of Solomon."]
— Never upbraid me, 0 ye foreign congregations, that I seem in
outward appearance discoloured by my infirmities, and duskish
with tribulations; for whatsoever I seem to you, I am yet in
wardly well-favoured in the eyes of Him whom I seek to please ;
and thouo-h I be to you black, like the tents of the Arabian shep-

rt v

herds, yet to Him and in Him I am glorious and beautiful, like
the curtains of Solomon.

6. " Regard ve me not, because I am black, for the sun hath
looked upon me : the sons of my mother were angry against me ;
they made me keeper of the vines: but I kept not mine own
vine."] — Look not therefore disdainfully upon me, because I am
blackish and dark of hue ; for this colour is not so much natural
to me as caused by that continual heat of afflictions wherewith I
have been usually scorched ; neither this so much upon mine own
just desert as upon the rage and envy of my false brethren, the
world, who would needs force upon me the observation of their
idolatrous religions and superstitious impieties; through whose
wicked importunity and my own weakness I have not so entirely
kept the sincere truth of God committed to me as I ought.

7. " Show me, 0 thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feed-
est, where thou liest at noon : for why should I be as she that
turneth aside to the flocks of thy companions?"] — Now therefore
that I am some little started aside from thee, O thou whom my
soul notwithstanding dearly loveth, show me, I beseech thee,
where and in what wholesome and divine pastures thou, like a
good shepherd, feedest and restest thy flocks with comfortable
refreshings, in the extremity of these hot persecutions ; for how
can it stand with thy glory that I should through thy neglect
thus suspiciously wander up and down amongst the congrega
tions of them that both command and practise the worship of
false gods ?

Christ to the Church.

8. "If thou know not, 0 thou the fairest among women, get
thee forth by the steps of the flock, and feed thy kids above the
tents of the shepherds."]— If thou know not, O thou my Church,
whom I both esteem and have made most beautiful by my merits
and thy sanctification, stray not amongst these false worshippers,
but follow the holy steps of those blessed patriarchs, prophets,
apostles, which have been my true and ancient flock, who have

THE SONG OF SOLOMON I. 5-14. 293

both known my voice and followed me ; and feed thou my weak
and tender ones with this their spiritual food of life, far above the
carnal reach of those other false teachers.

9. " I have compared thee, 0 my love, to the troops of horses
in the chariots of Pharaoh.''1] — Such is mine estimation of thee, 0
my love, that so far as the choicest Egyptian horses of Pharaoh,
for comely shape, for honourable service, for strength and speed,
exceed all other, so far thou excellest all that may be compared
with thee.

10. "Thy cheeks are comely with rows of stones, and thy
neck with chains."] — Those parts of thee, which both are the
seats of beauty and most conspicuous to the eye, are gloriously
adorned with the graces of my sanctification ; which are for their
worth as so many precious borders of the goodliest stones or
chains of pearl.

u." We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver."]
— And though thou be already thus set forth, yet I and my Fa
ther have purposed a further ornament unto thee in the more
plentiful effusion of our Spirit upon thee ; which shall be to thy
former deckings instead of pure gold curiously wrought with
specks of silver.

The Church.

12." While the king was at his repast, my spikenard gave the
smell thereof."] — Behold, 0 ye daughters, even now while my
Lord and King seems far distant from me, and sits in the throne

O '

of heaven among the companies of angels who attend around upon
him, yet now do I find him present with me in spirit ; even now
the sweet influence of his graces, like to some precious ointment,
spreads itself over my soul, and returns a pleasant savour into his
own nostrils.

13. " My wellbeloved is as a bundle of myrrh unto me ; lying
between my breasts."] — And though I be thus delightful to my
Saviour, yet nothing so much as he is unto me : for lo, as some
fragrant pomander of myrrh laid between the breasts sends up a
most comfortable scent; so his love, laid close unto my heart, doth
still give me continual and unspeakable refreshings.

14. " My wellbeloved is unto me as a cluster of cypers among
the vines of En-gedi."] — Or if any thing can be of more excellent
virtue, such smell as the clusters of cypers berries, within the
fruitfullest, pleasantest, and richest vineyards and gardens of

PARAPHRASE UPON

Judea, yield unto the passengers ; such and more delectable do I
find the savour of his grace to me.

Christ.

15. "My love, behold, thou art fair; thine eyes are like the
doves."]— Neither dost thou on my part lose any of thy love, 0
my dear Church ; for behold, in mine eyes, thus clothed as thou
art with my righteousness, 0 how fair and glorious thou art!
how above all comparison glorious and fair! thine eyes, which
are thy seers, (prophets, apostles, ministers,) and those inward
eyes, whereby thou seest him that is invisible, are full of grace,

chastity, simplicity.

The, Church.

16. " My wellbeloved, behold thou art fair, and pleasant : also
our bed is green."] — Nay then, 0 my sweet Saviour and Spouse,
thou alone art that fair and pleasant one indeed, from whose
fulness I confess to have received all this little measure of my
spiritual beauty : and behold, from this our mutual delight and
heavenly conjunction, there ariseth a plentiful and flourishing in
crease of thy faithful ones in all places and through all times.

17. "The beams of our house are cedar, our galleries are
of fir."] — And behold, the congregations of saints, the places
where we do sweetly converse and walk together, are both firm
and during, like cedars amongst the trees, not subject, through
thy protecting grace, to utter corruption, and, tbrough thy favour
able acceptation and word, like to galleries of sweet wood, full of
pleasure and contentment.

Christ.

II, i . " I am the rose of the field, and the lily of the valleys."]
— Thou hast not without just cause magnified me, 0 my Church ;
for as the fairest and sweetest of all flowers which the earth
yieldeth, the rose and lily of the valleys, excel for beauty, for
pleasure, for use, the most base and odious weeds that grow, so
doth my grace, to all them that have felt the sweetness thereof,
surpass all worldly contentments.

2. " Like a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daugh
ters."] — Neither is this my dignity alone ; but thou, 0 my Spouse,
that thou mayest be a fit match for me, art thus excellent above
the world, that no lily can be more in goodly show beyond the
naked thorn, than thou, in thy glory thou receivest from me, over-
lookcst all the assemblies of aliens and unregcnerates.

THE SONG OF SOLOMON I. 15.— II. 7. 295

The Church.

3. "Like the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is
my wellbeloved among the sons of men. Under his shadow had I
delight, and sat down, and his fruit was sweet unto my mouth.""]
— And, to return to thine own praises, as some fruitful and well-
grown apple tree, in comparison of all the barren trees of the
wild forest, so art thou, O my beloved Saviour, to me, in com
parison of all men and angels: under thy comfortable shadow alone
have I ever wont to find safe shelter against all mine afflictions,
all my temptations and infirmities ; against all the curses of the
law, and dangers of judgment ; and to cool myself after all the
scorching beams o£ thy Father's displeasure ; and besides, to feed
and satisfy my soul with the sovereign fruit of thy holy word unto
eternal life.

4. " He brought me into the wine cellar, and love was his
banner over me."] — He hath graciously led me by his Spirit into
the midst of the mysteries of godliness ; and hath plentifully
broached unto me the sweet wines of his Scriptures and Sacra
ments. And look how soldiers are drawn by their colours from
place to place, and cleave fast to their ensign ; so his love,
which he spread forth in my heart, was my only banner, whereby
I was both drawn to him, directed by him, and fastened upon
him.

5. " Stay me with flagons, and comfort me with apples : for I
am sick of love."] — And now, O ye faithful Evangelists, Apostles,
Teachers, apply unto me, with all care and diligence, all the cor
dial promises of the Gospel : these are the full flagons of that spi
ritual wine which only can cheer up the soul ; these are the apples
of that tree of life, in the midst of the garden, which can feed me
to immortality. 0 come and apply these unto my heart ; for I
am even overcome with a longing expectation and desire of my
delayed glory.

6. " His left hand be under my head, and let his right hand
embrace me."] — And while I am thus spiritually languishing in
this agony of desire, let my Saviour employ both his hands to re
lieve mine infirmity ; let him comfort my head and my heart, my
judgment and affections, which both complain of weakness with
the lively heat of his gracious embracements ; and so let us
sweetly rest together.

7. " I charge you, 0 daughters of Jerusalem, by the rocs, and
by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor waken my love,

296 PARAPHRASE UPON

until he please."] — In the mean time, I charge yon, 0 all ye that
profess any friendship or affinity with me, I charge you, by what
soever is comely, dear, and pleasant unto you, as you will avoid
my uttermost censures, take heed how you vex and disquiet my
merciful Saviour, and grieve his Spirit, and wrong his name, with
your vain and lewd conversation ; and do not dare, by the least
provocation of your sin, to interrupt his peace.

8. " The voice of my wellbeloved ! behold, he cometh leaping
by the mountains, skipping by the hills."] — Lo, I have no sooner
called, but he hears and answers me with his loving voice : neither
doth he only speak to me afar, but he comes to me with much
willingness and celerity ; so willingly, that no human resistance
can hinder him : neither the hillocks of my lesser infirmities, nor
the mountains of my grosser sins once repented of, can stay his
merciful pace towards me :

9. "My wellbeloved is like a roe or a young hart: lo! he
standeth behind our wall, looking forth of the windows, showing
himself through the grates."] — So swiftly, that no roe or hind can
fully resemble him in this his speed and nimbleness : and lo, even
now, before I can speak it, is he come near unto me, close to the
door and wall of my heart. And though this wall of my flesh
hinder my full fruition of him, yet, lo, I see him by the eye of
faith, looking upon me ; I see him as in a glass ; I see him shining
gloriously through the grates and windows of his word and sacra
ments, upon my soul.

i o. " My beloved spake, and said unto me, Arise, my love, my
fair one, and come thy way."] — And now, methinks, I hear him
speak to me in a gracious invitation, and say, Arise, O my Church,
rise up, whether from thy security or fear : hide not thy head any
longer, 0 my beautiful Spouse, for danger of thine enemies ; nei
ther suffer thyself to be pressed with the dulness of thy nature,
or the careless sleep of thy sins ; but come forth into the com
fortable light of my presence, and show thyself cheerful in me.

11. " For, behold winter is past, the rain is changed and gone
away."]— For behold, all the cloudy winter of thy afflictions is
past : all the tempests of temptations are blown over : the heaven
is clear ; and now there is nothing that may not give thee cause
of delight.

1 2. "The flowers appear in the earth ; the time of the singing
of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our
land."]— Every thing now resembles the face of a spiritual spring:

THE SONG OF SOLOMON II. 8.-i6. 297

all the sweet flowers and blossoms of holy profession put forth,
and show themselves in their opportunities : now is the time of
that heavenly melody, which the cheerful saints and angels make
in mine ears, while they sing songs of deliverance, and praise me
with their Hallelujahs, and say, Glory to God on high, in earth
peace, good will towards men.

13. "The fig tree hath brought forth her young figs, and the
vines with their small grapes give a yood smell. Arise, my love,
my fair one, and come away/7] — What speak I of blossoms? be
hold, those fruitful vines and fig trees of my faithful ones, whom
my husbandry hath carefully tended and dressed, yield forth both
pleasant, though tender, fruits of obedience, and the Avholesome
and comfortable savours of better desires; wherefore now, O my
dear Church, shake off all that dull security wherewith thou hast
been held, and come forth and enjoy me.

14. "My dove, thou art in the holes of the rock, in the secret
places of the cliffs, show me thy sight, let me hear thy voice; for
thy voice is sweet, and thy sight comely."] — 0 my beautiful, pure,
and chaste Spouse, which, like unto some solitary dove, hast long
hid thy head in the secret and inaccessible clefts of the rocks,
out of the reach and knowledge of thy persecutors ; however thou
art concealed from others, show thyself in thy works and right
eousness unto me, and let me be ever plied with thy words of
imploratlon and thanksgiving : for thy voice, though it be in
mourning, and thy face, though it be sad and blubbered, are
exceedingly pleasing unto me.

15. "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, which destroy the
vines : for our vines have small grapes/'] — And in the mean time,

0 all ye that wish well to my Name and Church, do your utmost
endeavour to deliver her from her secret enemies; not sparing
the least, who, either by heretical doctrine or profane conversa
tion, hinder the course of the Gospel, and pervert the faith of
many, especially of those that have newly given up their names to
me, and are but newly entered into the profession of godliness.

16. "My wellbeloved is mine, and I am his ; he feedeth among
the lilies."] — My beloved Saviour is mine, through my faith ; and

1 am his, through his love ; and we both are one, by virtue of
that blessed union on both parts, whereby we mutually enjoy
each other with all-sufficient contentment. And how worthily is
my love placed upon him, who leadeth me forth into pleasant

298 PARAPHRASE UPON

pastures, and at whose right hand there is the fulness of joy for
evermore !

17. " Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, return
my wellbeloved, and be like a roe or a young hart upon the moun
tains of Bother."]— Come, therefore, O my Saviour, and until the
day of thy glorious appearance shall shine forth to the world,
wherein our spiritual marriage shall be consummate, and until all
these shadows of ignorance, of infidelity, of troubles of conscience,
and of outward tribulations, be utterly dispersed and chased away,
come and turn thee to me again : thou which to the carnal eyes
of the world seemest absent, come quickly, and delay not ; but,
for the speed of thy return, be like unto some swift roe or hind,
upon those smooth hills of Gilead, which Jordan severs from the
other part of Jewry.

III. i. "In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth :
I sought him, but I found him not."] — My security told me that
my Saviour was near unto my soul, yea with it, and in it ; but
when, by serious and silent meditation, I searched my own heart,
I found that, for aught my own sense could discern, he was far off
from me.

2. "I will rise therefore now, and go about in the city by the
streets, and by the open places I will seek him that my soul loveth :
I sought him, but I found him not."] — Then thought I with my
self, Shall I lie still contented with this want ? No, I will stir up
myself; and the help 1 cannot find in myself I will seek in others:
of all that have been experienced in all kind of difficulties, of all
deep philosophers, of the wisest and honestest worldlings, I will
diligently inquire for my Saviour : amongst them I sought him,
yet could receive no answer to my satisfaction.

3. "The watchmen that went about the city found me: to
whom I said, Have ye seen him whom my soul loveth ?"] — Missing
him there, I ran to those wise and careful teachers, whom God
hath set as so many watchmen upon the walls of his Jerusalem,
who sooner found me than I could ask after them ; to whom I
said, as thinking no man could be ignorant of my love, Can you
give me no direction where I might find him whom my soul
loveth ?

4. " When I had passed a little from them, then I found him
whom my soul loveth : I took hold of him, and left him not, till I
had brought him unto my mother's house, into the chamber of her

THE SONG OF SOLOMON II. 17.— III. 8. 299

that conceived me."] — Of whom when I had almost left hoping
for comfort, that gracious Saviour, 'who would not suffer me to be
tempted above my measure, presented himself to my soul : lo
then, by a new act of faith, I laid fast hold upon him ; and will
not let him any more part from my joyful embraccments, until
both I have brought him home fully into the seat of my con
science, and have won him to a perpetual cohabitation with me,
and a full accomplishment of my love in that Jerusalem which is
above, which is the mother of us all.

Christ.

5. " I charge you, 0 ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes,
and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor waken my
love, until she please."] — Now that my distressed Church hath
been, all the night long of my seeming absence, toiled in seeking
me, I charge you, O all that profess any friendship with me, I
charge you, by whatsoever is comely, dear, and pleasant unto
you, that, as you will answer it, you trouble not her peace with
any unjust or unseasonable suggestions, with uncharitable conten
tions, with any novelties of doctrine ; but suffer her to rest sweetly
in that divine truth which she hath received, and this true appre
hension of me wherein she rejoiceth.

6. " Who is she that cometh up out of the wilderness like pillars
of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and incense, and with all the
chief of spices?"] — O who is this? how admirable ! how lovely!
who but my Church, that ascendeth thus gloriously out of the
wilderness of the world, wherein she hath thus long wandered
into the blessed mansions of my Father's house, all perfumed with
the graces of perfect sanctification, mounting right upward into
her glory like some straight pillar of smoke, that ariseth from the
most rich and pleasant composition of odours that can be devised !

The Church.

7. "Behold his bed, which is better than Solomon's; three
score strong men are round about it, of the valiant men of
Israel."] — I am ascended; and, lo, how glorious is this place,
where I shall eternally enjoy the presence and love of my Sa
viour ! how far doth it exceed the earthly magnificence of Solo
mon ! about his bed do attend a guard of threescore choicest
men of Israel :

8. " They all handle the sword, and are expert in war : every
one hath his sword upon his thigh for the fear by night."] — All

300 PARAPHRASE UPON

stout warriors, able and expert to handle the sword; which, for
more readiness, each of thorn wears hanging upon his thigh, so as
it may be hastily drawn upon any sudden danger : but about this
heavenly pavilion of my Saviour attend millions of angels, spiri
tual soldiers, mighty in power, ready to be commanded service
by him.

Q " Kino1 Solomon made himself a bed of the trees of Leba-

s ' O

non."] — The bridebed that Solomon made, so much admired of
the world, was but of the cedars of Lebanon ;

10. "He made the pillars thereof of silver, and the stead
thereof of gold, the hangings thereof o/purple, whose midst was
inlaid with the love of the daughters of Jerusalem."] — The pillars
but of silver, and the bedstead of gold ; the tester or canopy but
of purple ; the coverlet wrought with the curious and painful
needlework of the maids of Jerusalem : but this celestial resting-
place of my God is not made with hands, nor of any corruptible
metal, but is full of incomprehensible light, shining evermore with
the glorious presence of God.

11. " Come forth, 0 ye daughters of Sion, and behold the king
Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in
the day of his marriage, and in the day of the gladness of his
heart."] — And as the outward state, so the majesty of his person
is above all comparison. Come forth, 0 ye daughters of Zion,
lay aside all private and earthly affections, look upon king Solo
mon, as he sits solemnly crowned in the day of his greatest
royalty and triumph ; and compare his highest pomp with the
divine magnificence of my Saviour, in that day when his blessed
marriage shall be fully perfected above, to the eternal rejoicing
of himself and his Church, and see whether there be any propor
tion betwixt them.

Christ.

IV. i. "Behold, thou art fair, my love : behold, thou art fair ;
thine eyes are like the doves within thy locks : thine hair is like
a flock of goats, which look down from the mountains of Gilead."]
— O how fair thou art and comely, my dear Spouse ! How in
wardly fair with the gifts of my Spirit ! how fair outwardly in
thy comely administration and government ! Thy spiritual eyes
of understanding and judgment are full of purity, chastity, sim
plicity ; not wantonly cast forth, but modestly shining amidst thy
locks : all thy gracious profession, and all thy appendances and
ornaments of expedient ceremonies are so comelv to behold, as is

THE SONG OF SOLOMON III. 9.— IV. 6. 301

to see a flock of well-fed goats grazing upon the fruitful hills of
Gilead.

2. " Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep in good order, which
go up from the washing ; which every one bring out twins, and
none is barren among them."] — Those that chew and prepare
the heavenly food for thy soul are both of gracious simplicity
and of sweet accordance one with another ; having all one heart
and one tongue : and both themselves are sanctified and purged
from their uncleanness, and are fruitful in their holy labours unto
others; so that their doctrine is never in vain, but is still answered
with plentiful increase of souls added to the Church.

3. " Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy talk is
comely : thy temples are within thy locks as a piece of a pome
granate."] — Thy speech, especially in the mouth of thy teachers,
is both gracious in itself, and such as administers grace to the
hearers ; full of zeal and fervent charity, full of gravity and dis
cretion : and that part of thy countenance which thou wilt have
seen, though dimly and sparingly, is full of holy modesty and
bashfulness ; so blushing, that it seemeth like the colour of a
broken piece of pomegranate.

4. " Thy neck is as the tower of David built for defence, a
thousand shields hang therein, and all the targets of the strong
men."] — Those who by their holy authority sustain thy govern
ment, which are as some straight and strong neck to bear up the
head, are like unto David's high tower of defence, furnished with
a rich armoury, which affords infinite ways of safe protection, and
infinite monuments of victory.

5. " Thy two breasts are as two young kids that are twins,
feeding among the lilies."] — Thy two Testaments, which are thy
two full and fair breasts whereby thy nursest all thy faithful chil
dren, are as two twins of kids ; twins, for their excellent and per
fect agreement one with another, in all resemblances of kids that
are daintily fed among the sweet flowers, for the pleasant nourish
ment which they yield to all that suck thereof.

6. " Until the day break, and the shadows fly away, I will go
into the mountain of myrrh, and to the mountain of incense."] —
Until the day of my gracious appearance shall shine forth, and
until all these shadows of ignorance, infidelity, afflictions, be ut
terly and suddenly dispersed, 0 my Spouse, I will retire myself,
in regard of my bodily presence, into my delightful and glorious
rest of heaven.

302 PARAPHRASE UPON

7. " Thou art all fair, my love ; and there is no spot in thee."]
— Thou art exceeding beautiful, 0 nay Church, in all the parts of
thee : for all thy sins are done away, and thine iniquity is covered ;
and lo, I present thee to my Father without spot or wrinkle, or
any such deformity.

8. " Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, even with me
from Lebanon : and look from the top of Amana, from the top of
Shenir and Hermon, from the dens of the lions, from the moun
tains of the leopards."] — And now, O thou which I profess to
have married to myself in truth and righteousness, thou shalt be
gathered to me from all parts of the world ; not only from the
confines of Judea, where I planted and found thee, but from the
remotest and most savage places of the nations ; out of the com
pany of infidels, of cruel and bloody persecutors, who, like lions
and leopards, have tyrannized over thee, and mercilessly torn
thee in pieces.

9. " My sister, my spouse ; thou hast wounded my heart with
one of thine eyes, and with a chain of thy neck."] — Thou hast
utterly ravished me from myself, O my sister and spouse ; for so
thou art both joined to me in that spiritual union, and coheir with
me of the same inheritance and glory : thou hast quite ravished
my heart with thy love : even one cast of one of thine eyes of
faith, and one of the ornaments of thy sanctification wherewith
thou art decked by my Spirit, have thus stricken me with love ;
how much more, when I shall have a full sight of thee and all thy
graces, shall I be affected towards thee !

10. "My sister, my spouse; how fair is thy love! how much
better is thy love than wine ! and the savour of thine ointments
than all spicos !"] — 0 how excellent, how precious, how delectable
are those loves of thine, 0 my sister, my spouse ! how far sur
passing all earthly delicates ! and the savour of those divine vir
tues wherewith thou art endued more pleasing to my scent than
all the perfumes in the world !

ii." Thy lips, my spouse, drop as honeycombs : honey and
milk are under thy tongue ; and the savour of thy garments is as
the savour of Lebanon."] — The gracious speeches that proceed
from thee are as so many drops of the honeycomb that fall from
thy lips ; and whether thou exhort, or confess, or pray, or com
fort, thy words are both sweet and nourishing ; and the savour of
thy good works and outward conversation is to me as the smell of
the wood of Lebanon to the sense of man.

THE SONG OF SOLOMON IV. 7-16. SOtf

12. "My sister, my spouse, is as a garden inclosed, as a spring
shut up, and a fountain sealed up."] — My sister, my spouse, is as
a garden or orchard full of all variety of the heavenly trees and
flowers of grace : not lying carelessly open, either to the love of
strangers, or to the rage of enemies, which, like the wild boar out
of the wood, might root up and destroy her choice plants ; but
safely hedged and walled about by my protection, and reserved
for my delight alone : she is a spring and well of wholesome
waters, from whom flow forth the pure streams of my word ; but,
both inclosed and sealed up : partly, that she may the better by
this closeness preserve her own natural taste and vigour from the
corruptions of the world ; and partly, that she may not be denied
and mudded by the profane feet of the wicked.

13, 14. "Thy plants are as an orchard of pomegranates, with
sweet fruits ; as cypers, spikenard, even spikenard and saffron ;
calamus and cinnamon, with all the trees of incense ; myrrh and
aloes, with all the chief spices.""] — Thou art an orchard, yea a para
dise, whose plants, which are thy faithful children that grow up in
thee, are as pomegranate trees ; the apples whereof arc esteemed,
for the largeness, colour, and taste, above all other : or, if I
would feed my other senses, the plentiful fruits of thy holy obe
dience, which thou yieldest unto me, are, for their smell, as some
composition of cypress, spikenard, saffron, sweet cane, cinnamon,
incense, myrrh, aloes, and whatsoever else may be devised, unto
the most perfect scent.

15. " O fountain of the gardens, 0 well of living waters, and
springs of Lebanon."] — Thou art so a spring in my garden, that
the streams which are derived from thee water all the gardens of
my particular congregations all the world over: thou art that
fountain from whose pure head issue all those living waters which
whoso drinketh shall never thirst again; even such clear cur
rents as flow from the hill of Libanus, which, like unto another
Jordan, water all the Israel of God.

The Church.

16. "Arise, O north; and come, 0 south; and blow on my
garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my wellbe-
loved come to his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits."] — If I be
a garden, as thou sayest, 0 my Saviour, then arise, O all ye
sovereign winds of the Spirit of God, and breathe upon this
garden of my soul, that the sweet odours of these my plants may
both be increased, and may also be dispersed afar, and carried

304 PARAPHRASE UPON

Jnto the nostrils of my wellbeloved; and so let him come into his
own garden, which his own hand hath digged, planted, watered ;
and accept of the fruit of that service and praise which he shall
enable me to bring forth to his name.

Christ.

V. i . " I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse : I
gathered my myrrh with my spice ; I ate my honey with my
honeycomb ; I drank my wine with my milk ; eat, 0 my friends ;
drink, and make you merry, 0 wellbeloved."] — Behold, accord
ing to thy desire, I am come into my garden, O my sister, my
spouse : I have received those fruits of thine obedience which
thou oiferedst unto me with much joy and pleasure. I have ac
cepted not only of thy good works, but thy endeavours and pur
poses of holiness, both which are as pleasant to me as the honey
and the honeycomb. I have allowed of the cheerfulness of thy
service and the wholesomeness of thy doctrine. And ye, 0 my
friends, whether blessed angels or faithful men. partake with me
in this joy arising from the faithfulness of my Church : cheer up
and fill yourselves, 0 my beloved, with the same spiritual dainties
wherewith I am refreshed.

The Church.

2. "I sleep, but my heart waketh : it is the voice of my well-
beloved that knocketh, saying, Open unto me, rny sister, my love,
my dove, my undefiled : for mine head is full of dew, and my
locks with the drops of the night."] — When the world had cast
me into a secure sleep, or slumber rather, for my heart was not
utterly bereaved of a true faith in my Saviour, even in this dark
ness of my mind, it pleased rny gracious Redeemer not to neglect
me : he came to me, and knocked oft, and called importunately
at the door of my heart, by his word and chastisements, and said,
Open the door of thy soul, 0 my sister, my dear, chaste, comely,
unspotted Church ; let me come in, and lodge and dwell with
thee, in my graces ; shut out the world, and receive me with a
more lively act and renovation of thy faith ; for lo, I have long
waited patiently for this effect of thy love, and have endured all
the injuries both of the night and weather of thy provocations,
that I might at last enjoy thee.

3. " I have put off my coat ; how shall I put it on ? I have
washed my feet; how shall I defile them?"] — I answered him
again, pleading excuses for my delay ; Alas, Lord, I have now,
since I left my forward profession of thee, avoided a great number

THE SONG OF SOLOMON V. 1-8. 305

of cares and sorrows ; must I take them up again to follow thee ?
I have lived clean from the soil of these evils, and shall I now
thrust myself into danger of them ?

4. "My wellbeloved put his hand from the hole of the door,
and my bowels yearned toward him."111] — When my Saviour heard
this unkind answer of delay, he let his hand fall from the key
hole, which he had thus before without success laboured about ;
and withdrew himself from soliciting me any more : whereupon
my heart and bowels yearned within me for him, and for the re
morse of my so long for eslo wing his admittance unto me.

5. "I rose up to open to my wellbeloved; and my hands did
drop down myrrh, and my fingers pure myrrh, upon the handles
of the bars.r>] — And now I roused up my drowsy heart what I
could, that I might, in some cheerful manner, desire to receive so
gracious a Saviour ; which when I hut endeavoured, I found that
he had left behind him such a plentiful blessing, as the monument
of his late presence, upon the first motions of my heart, as that
with the very touch of them I was both exceedingly refreshed,
and moved to further indignation at myself for delaying him.

6. " I opened to my wellbeloved ; but my wellbeloved was gone
and past : mine heart was gone when he did speak ; I sought
him, but I could not find him ; I called him, but he answered me
not."] — I opened to my beloved Saviour, but my Saviour had now,
in my feeling, withdrawn himself, and hid his countenance from
me, holding me short of those gracious offers and means which I
had refused ; and now I was almost past myself with despair, to
remember that sweet invitation of his which I neglected : I sought
him therefore in my thoughts, in the outward use of his ordinances
and of my earnest prayers ; but he would not as yet be found of
me, or let me find that I was heard of him.

7. "The watchmen that went about the city found me, they
smote me, and wounded me ; the watchmen of the walls took away
my veil from me."]— Those which should have regarded me, and by
their vigilancy have secured me from danger, proved mine adver
saries : instead of comforting me, they fell upon me, and wounded
me with their false doctrines, drawing me on into further errors,
spoiling me of that purity and sincerity of profession, wherewith,
as with some rich and modest veil, I was formerly adorned and
covered.

8. " I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my well-
beloved, that ye tell him, I am sick of love."] — I advise you so-

BP. HALL, VOL. III. X

306 PARAPHRASE UPON

lemnly, 0 all ye that wish well to me — for I care not who knows
the vehemency of my passion — if you shall find my Saviour's pre
sence in yourselves before me, pray for the recovery of his love
to me ; and, bemoaning my estate to him, tell him how I languish
with the impatient desire of his love and presence to be restored
unto me.

9. "0 thou fairest among women, what is thy wellbeloved
more than another wellbeloved ? what is thy wellbeloved more
than another lover, that thou dost so charge us ?"] — 0 thou which
art the most happy, most gracious, and most glorious of creatures,
the chosen of the living God ; what is thy wellbeloved, whom thou
seekest, above all other the sons of men ? what such eminency is
there in him above all saints and angels, that thou art both so far
gone in affection to him, and dost so vehemently adjure us to
speak unto him for thee ?

10. "My wellbeloved is white and ruddy, the standard-bearer
of ten thousand.''1] — My wellbeloved, if you know not, is of perfect
beauty ; in whose face is an exact mixture of the colours of the
purest and healthfulest complexion of holiness: for he hath not
received the Spirit by measure ; and in him the Godhead dwells
bodily : he is infinitely fairer than all the sons of men ; and for
goodliness of person may bear the standard of comeliness and
grace amongst ten thousand.

ii." His head is as fine gold, his locks curled, and black as
a raven."] — The Deity which dwelleth in him is most pure and
glorious ; and that fulness of grace which is communicated to his
human nature is wondrously beautiful, and so sets it forth, as the
black curled locks do a fresh and well-favoured countenance.

12. "His eyes are like doves upon the rivers of waters, which
are washed with milk, and remain in their fulness."] — His judg
ment of all things, and his respect to his Church, which are as
his eyes, are full of love and full of pity ; shining like unto doves
washed in water, yea, in milk, so as there is no spot or blemish to
be found in them : and they are withal so fully placed, as is both
most comely and most expedient for the perfect sight of the estate
and necessities of his servants.

13. " His cheeks are as a bed of spices, and as sweet flowers :
and his lips like lilies, dropping down pure myrrh."] — The mani
festation of himself to us in his word is sweet to our spiritual
feeling; as an heap of spice, or those flowers that are used to
make the best perfuming ointments, are to the other senses ; his

THE SONG OF SOLOMON V. 9.— VI. 2. 307

heavenly instructions and promises of his Gospel are unspeakably
comfortable, and plenteous, in the grace that is wrought by them.

14. "His hands are as rings of gold set with the chrysolite:
his belly like white ivory covered ivith sapphires."] — His actions
and his instruments, which are his hands, are set forth with much
port and majesty, as some precious stone beautifies the ring wherein
it is set : the secret counsels of his breast, and the mysteries of his
will, are most pure and holy, and full of excellent glory.

15. " His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine
gold: his countenance as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars."] —
All his proceedings are firm and stable ; and withal, as pillars of
marble set in sockets of tried gold ; so as they are neither subject
to wavering, nor to any danger of infirmity and corruption : the
show and carriage of his whole person, whereby he makes himself
known to his chosen, is exceeding goodly and upright, like to the
straight and lofty cedars of Lebanon.

1 6. " His mouth is as sweet things, yea, he is altogether delect
able. This is my wellbeloved, and this is my lover, 0 daughters
of Jerusalem."] — His mouth, out of which proceed innumerable
blessings and comfortable promises, is to my soul even sweetness
itself; yea, what speak I of any one part? as you have heard in
these particulars, he is all sweets ; there is nothing but comfort in
him, and there is no comfort but in him : and this, if ye would
know, is my wellbeloved ; of so incomparable glory and worthiness,
that ye may easily discern him from all others.

Foreign congregations.

VI. i. "0 the fairest among women, whither is thy wellbeloved
gone? whither is thy wellbeloved turned aside? that we might
seek him with thee."] — Since thy wellbeloved is so glorious and
amiable, O thou, which art for thy beauty worthy to be the spouse
of such an husband, tell us, for thou only knowest it ; and to seek
Christ without the Church we know is vain; tell us where this
Saviour of thine is to be sought ; that we, ravished also with the
report of his beauty, may join with thee in the same holy study of
seeking after him.

2. " My wellbeloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds
of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies."] — My well-
beloved Saviour, if you would know this also, is to be sought and
found in the particular assemblies of his people, which are his
Garden of Pleasure ; wherein are varieties of all the beds of re
newed souls, which both he hath planted and dressed by his con-

X 2

308 PARAPHRASE UPON

tinual care, and wherein he walketh for his delight ; feeding and
solacing himself with those fruits of righteousness and new obedi
ence which they are able.to bring forth unto him.

3. " I am my wellbeloved's, and my wellbeloved is mine : who
feedeth among the lilies."] — And now, lo, whatsoever hath hap
pened cross to me in my sensible fruition of him, in spite of all
temptations, my beloved Saviour is mine through faith, and I am
his through his love ; and both of us are by an inseparable union
knit together ; whose conjunction and love is most sweet and
happy ; for all that are his he feedeth continually with heavenly
repast.

Christ.

VI. 4. " Thou art beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, comely as Je
rusalem, terrible as an army with banners."] — Notwithstanding
this thy late blemish of neglecting me, O my Church, yet still, in
mine eyes, through my grace, upon this thy repentance, thou art
beautiful, like unto that neat and elegant city Tirzah, and that
orderly building of Jerusalem, the glory of the world ; and with
this thy loveliness thou art awful unto thine adversaries, through
the power of thy censures and the majesty of Him that dwelleth
in thee.

5- "Turn away thine eyes from me, for they overcome me:
thine hair is like a flock of goats which look down from Gilead."]
—Yea, such beauty is in thee, that I am overcome with the vehe-
mency of my affection to thee ; turn away thine eyes a while from
beholding me ; for the strength of that faith, whereby they are
fixed upon me. ravisheth me from myself with joy : I do therefore
again renew thy former praise ; that thy gracious profession, and
all thy appendances and ornaments of expedient ceremonies are so
comely to behold, as it is to see a flock of well fed goats grazing
upon the fruitful hills of Gilead.

6. " Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep which go up from the
washing, which every one beareth twins, and none is barren among
them."] — Thy teachers, that chew and prepare the heavenly food
of thy soul, are of sweet accordance one with another, having all
one heart and one tongue ; and both themselves are sanctified and
purged from their uncleanness, and are fruitful in their holy labours
unto others ; so that their doctrine is never in vain, but is still an
swered with plentiful increase of souls to the Church.

7. Thy temples are within thy locks as a piece of a pomegranate."]
-That part of thy countenance, which thou wilt have seen, though

THE SONG OF SOLOMON V. 3.— VI. 12. 309

dimly and sparingly, is full of holy modesty and bashfulness ; so
blushing, that it seemeth like the colour of a broken piece of pome
granate.

8. "There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines,
and of the damsels without number."] — Let there be never so
great a number of people and nations, of churches and assemblies,
which challenge my Name and Love ; and perhaps, by their out
ward prosperity, may seem to plead much interest in me, and much
worth in themselves.

9. But my Love is alone, and my undefiled : she is the only
daughter of her mother, and she is dear to her that bare her.
The daughters have seen her and counted her blessed ; even the
queens and the concubines, and they have praised her."] — Yet
thou only art alone my true and chaste Spouse, pure and undefiled
in the truth of thy doctrine and the imputation of my holiness :
thou art she, whom that Jerusalem which is above, the mother of
us all, acknowledged for her only true and dear daughter. And
this is not my commendation alone, but all those foreign assem
blies, which might seem to be rivals with thee of this praise, do
applaud and bless thee in this thine estate, and say, Blessed is
this people whose God is the Lord.

10. "Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the
moon, pure as the sun, terrible as an army with banners ?"] —
And admiring thy goodliness shall say, Who is this that looks out
so freshly as the morning new risen ; which from these weak
beginnings is grown to such high perfection, that now she is as
bright and glorious as the sun in his full strength, and the moon
in a clear sky ; and withal is so dreadful, through the majesty of
her countenance and power of her censures, as some terrible army,
with ensigns displayed, is to a weak adversary ?

11. "I went down to the dressed orchard to see the fruits of
the valley, to see if the vine budded, and if the pomegranate
flourished."] — Thou complainedst of my absence, O my Church :
there was no cause ; I meant not to forsake thee ; I did but only
walk down into the well-dressed orchard of thine assemblies, to re
create and joy myself with a view of their forwardness, to see the
happy progress of the humble in spirit, and the gracious begin
nings of those tender souls which are newly converted unto me.

12. "I knew nothing, my soul set me as the chariots of my
noble people."] — So earnestly did I long to revisit thee, and to
restore comfort unto thee, that I hasted I know not which way ;

310 PARAPHRASE UPON

and with insensible speed 1 am come back, as it were upon the
swiftest chariots, or the wings of the wind.

13. "Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that I may
behold thee. What shall you see in the Shulamite but as the
company of an army?"] — Now therefore return, 0 my Spouse,
the true daughter of Jerusalem, return to me, return to thyself,
and to thy former feeling of my grace : return, that both myself
and all the company of angels may see and rejoice in thee ; and
what shall ye see ? 0 all ye hosts of heaven, what shall ye see in
my Church ? even such an awful grace and majesty as is in a well
marshalled army, ready to meet with tho enemy.

VII. i. " How beautiful are thy goings with shoes, 0 prince's
daughter ! the compass of thy hips like jewels, the work of the
hand of a cunning workman."] — How beautiful are thy feet, O
daughter of the Highest ; heing shod with the preparation of the
Gospel of peace, and readily addressed to run the way of the
commandments of thy God ! Thou art compassed about thy
loins with the girdle of verity ; which is both precious for the
matter of it, and cunningly framed by the skill of the Spirit of
Truth.

2. " Thy navel is like a round cup, that wanteth not liquor :
thy belly is as an heap of wheat compassed about with lilies.""] —
The navel, whereby all thy spiritual conceptions receive their
nourishment, is full of all fruitful supply, and never wants means
of sustenance to feed them in thy womb ; which also is so plen
teous in thy blessed increase, that it is as an heap of wheat con
sisting of infinite pure grains, which consort together with much
sweetness and pleasure.

3. " Thy two breasts are as two young kids that are twins."]
— Thy two Testaments, which are thy two full and comely breasts,
by whose wholesome milk thou nourishest all thy faithful chil
dren once born into the light, are, for their excellent and perfect
agreement, and their amiable proportion, like two twins of kids.

4. " Thy neck is like a tower of ivory ; thine eyes are like ar
tificial pools in a frequented gate : thy nose is as the tower of
Lebanon that looketh toward Damascus."]— Those who, by their
holy authority, support thy government, which are as some
straight and strong neck to bear up thy head, are, for their
height and defence, like a tower ; for their order, pureness, and
dignity, like a tower of ivory : thy teachers and ministers, which
are thine eyes, are like unto some clear and artificial ponds of

THE SONG OF SOLOMON VI. 13.— VII. 9. 311

water, in a place of greatest resort ; wherein all comers may see
the faces of their consciences, and whence they may plentifully
draw the waters of life: thy nose, by which all spiritual scents
are conveyed to thee, is perfectly composed, and featured like
some curious turret of that goodly house in Lebanon ; so as thy
judgment and power of discerning the spirits is admirable for the
order and excellency thereof.

5. " Thine head upon thee is as scarlet, and the bush of thine
head like purple; the king is tied in thy beams."] — The whole
tire of thine head, which are the ceremonies used by thee, are
very graceful, and of high estimation and price to all the be
holders; and as for me, I am so enamoured of thee, that I am
even tied by mine own desire to a perpetual presence in thine
holy assemblies.

6. " How fair art thou and how pleasant art thou, O my love,
in pleasures !"] — 0 how beautiful and lovely art thou therefore,
O my Church, in all thy parts and ornaments ! how sweet and
pleasant art thou, O my Love, in whatsoever might give me
true contentment !

7. "This thy stature is like a palm tree, and thy breasts like
clusters."] — Thy whole frame is, for goodliness and straight
growth, like unto some tall palm tree ; which the more it is de
pressed by the violence of persecutions riseth the more : and the
two breasts of thy Testaments are like two full juicy clusters,
which yield comfortable and abundant refreshing.

8. " I said, I will go up into the palm tree, I will take hold of
her boughs : thy breasts shall now be like the clusters of the
vine, and the savour of thy nose like apples.'1] — Seeing then thou
art my palm tree, I have resolved in myself to adjoin myself to
thee ; to enjoy thee ; to gather those sweet fruits of thy graces
which thou yieldest : and by my presence also will cause thee to
be more plentiful in all good works and doctrine ; so as thou shalt
afford abundance of heavenly liquor unto all the thirsty souls of
thy children, and an acceptable verdure of holiness and obedi
ence unto me.

9. "And the roof of thy mouth like good wine, which goeth
straight up to my wellbeloved, and causeth the lips of him that is
asleep to speak."] — And the delivery of my word, by the mouths
of my ministers, shall be as some excellent wine which sparkleth
right upward ; being well accepted of that God in whose name it
is taught, and no less highly esteemed of the receivers ; which is

312 PARAPHRASE UPON

of such wonderful power, that it is able to put words both of
repentance and praise into the lips of him that lies asleep in his

sins.

The Church.

10. "I am my wellbeloved's, and his desire is toward me."]—
Behold, such as I am, I am not my own ; much less am I any
other's ; I am wholly my Saviour's : and now I see and feel,
whatsoever I had deserved, that he is mine also in all entire af
fection ; who hath both chosen me, and given himself for me.

11. " Come, my wellbeloved, let us go into the fields, let us
lodge in the villages."] — Come therefore, O my dear Saviour, let
us join together in our mutual care : let thy Spirit and my service
be intent upon thy congregations here below on earth, and let us
stay in the place where our spiritual husbandry lieth.

12. " Let us go up early in the morning to the vines ; and see
if the vine flourish, whether it hath disclosed the first grapes, or
whether the pomegranates blossom : there will I give thee my
loves."] — Let us with all haste and cheerfulness visit the fruitful
vines of our believing children ; and to our mutual comfort be
witnesses and partakers of all the signs and fruits of grace, of all
those good works and thanksgivings, of those holy endeavours and
worthy practices, which they yield forth unto us : let us judge of
their forwardness, and commend it ; whereupon it will easily ap
pear that the consummation of our happy marriage draweth near,
in which there shall be a perfect union betwixt us.

13. " The mandrakes have given a smell, and in our gates are
all sweet things, new and old ; my wellbeloved, I have kept them
for thee."] — Behold, thy godly servants, which not only bear fruit
themselves, but are powerful in the provocation of others, present
their best services unto thee ; and even at our doors (not far to
seek, not hard to procure) is offer made unto thee of all variety
of fruit, whether from thy young converts or thy more settled
professors : and all these I spend not lavishly ; but in my loving
care duly reserve them for thee, and for the solemn day of our
full marriage.

The Jewish Church.

VIII. i. " 0 that thou ivert as my brother, that sucked the
breast of my mother ! I would find thee without, I would kiss
thee; then they should not despise me."] — O that I might see
thee, my Saviour, clothed in flesh ! 0 that thou which art my
everlasting Husband, mightcst also be my Brother, in partaking

THE SONG OF SOLOMON VII. 10.— VIII. 5. 313

the same human nature with me; that so I, finding thee below
upon earth, might familiarly entertain thee, and converse with
thee without reproach of the world, yea, might be exalted in thy
glory !

2. " I will lead thee, and bring thee into my mother's house,
there thou shalt teach me : I will cause thee to drink spiced wine
and new wine of my pomegranates."] — Then would I, though I
be now pent up in the limits of Judea, bring thee forth into the
light and knowledge of the universal Church, whose daughter I
am : and then and there thou shouldcst teach me how perfectly
to serve and worship thee, and I shall gladly entertain thee with
a royal feast of the best graces that are in my holiest servants.?
which I know thou wilt account better cheer than all the spiced
cups and pomegranate wines in the world.

3. " His left hand shall be under my head, and his right hand
shall embrace me."] — Then shall I attain to a nearer communion
with him, and both his hands shall be employed to sustain and
relieve me : yea, he shall comfort my head and my heart, my
judgment and affections, with the lively heat of his gracious em-
bracements.

4. " I charge you, 0 daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not
up, nor awake my love, until he please."] — I charge you, O all ye
that profess any friendship to me, I charge you deeply, as ye will
avoid my uttermost censures, take heed how ye vex and disquiet
my merciful Saviour, and grieve his Spirit ; and do not dare, by
the least provocation of him, to interrupt his peace.

Christ.

5. " Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness, leaning
upon her wellbeloved ? I raised thee up under an apple tree :
there thy mother conceived thee ; there she conceived that bare
thee."l — Who is this that from the comfortless deserts of iffno-

J O

ranee, of infidelity, of tribulations, ascendeth thus up into the glo
rious light and liberty of my chosen ; relying herself wholly upon
her Saviour, and solacing herself in him ? Is it not my Church ?
It is she whom I have loved and acknowledged of old : for even
under the tree of offence, the forbidden fruit which thou tastedst
to thy destruction, I raised thee up again from death ; even there
thy first mother conceived thee, while by faith she laid hold on
that blessed promise of the Gospel whereby she and her believing
seed were restored.

PARAPHRASE UPON

The Jewish Church.

6. " Set me as a seal on thy heart, as a signet on thine arm :
for love is strong as death ; jealousy is cruel as the grave : the
coals thereof are fiery coals, and a vehement flame."] — And so
have thou me still, 0 my Saviour, in a perpetual and dear re
membrance : keep me sure in thy heart, yea in thine arms, as
that which thou holdest most precious ; and let me never be re
moved from thy love, the least show and danger whereof I can
not endure : for this my spiritual love is exceeding powerful, and
can no more be resisted than death itself; and the jealous zeal
which I have for thee and thy glory consumes me even like the
grave, and burns me up like unto the coals of some most vehement
and extreme fire :

7. " Much water cannot quench love, neither can the floods
drown it : if a man would give all the substance of his house for
love, it would utterly be contemned."] — Yea, more than any fire ;
for any flame yet may be quenched with water, but all the water
of afflictions and terrors, yea whole streams of persecutions, can
not quench this love ; and for all tempting offers of wealth, of
pleasures and honour, how easily are they all contemned for the
love of my Saviour !

8. "We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what
shall we do for our sister when she shall be spoken for?"] — We
have a sister, as thou knowest, O Saviour, ordained through thy
mercy to the same grace with me, the uncalled Church of the
Gentiles ; small as yet of growth through the rareness of her con
verts, and destitute of the help of any outward ministry whereby
she might either bear or nourish children unto thee : when she
grows unto her maturity, and the mystery of calling her universally
to thee shall be revealed to the world and herself, what course will
it please thee to take with her ?

Christ.

9. " If she be a wall, we will build upon her a silver palace :
and if she be a door, we will keep her in with boards of cedar/'] —
If she shall continue firm and constant in the expectation of her
promises, and the profession of that truth which shall be revealed,
we will beautify and strengthen her with further grace, and make
her a pure and costly palace fit to entertain my Spirit ; and if
she will give free passage and good entrance to my word and

THE SONG OF SOLOMON VIII. 6-13. 315

grace, we will make her sure and safe from corruption, and reserve
her to immortality.

The Jewish Church.

10. "I am a wall, and my breasts are towers : then was I in
his eyes as one that findeth peace."] — Behold, that condition
which thou requirest in the Church of the Gentiles, thou findest
in me : I am thus firm and constant in my expectation, in my
profession ; and that want thou findest in her, of ability to
nourish her children by the breast of thy word, is not in me,
who have abundance both of nourishment and defence : upon
which my confession and plea, I found grace and peace in the
eyes of my Saviour, and received from him assurance of his ever
lasting love to me.

Christ.

11. " Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon ; he gave the
vineyard unto keepers ; every one bringeth for the fruit thereof
a thousand pieces of silver."] — My Church is my vine, and I am
the Owner and Husbandman : our thrift and profit thereof far
exceedeth the good husbandry of Solomon : he hath a rich vine
yard indeed in a most fruitful soil, but he lets it forth to the hands
of others, as not being able to keep and dress it himself; and
therefore he is fain to be content with the greatest part of the in
crease, not expecting the whole :

12. "But my vineyard, which is mine, is before me; to thee,
0 Solomon, appertaineth a thousand pieces of silver, and two hun
dred to them that kept the fruit thereof."] — But my Vine is ever
before me : I am with it to the end of the world : I reserve it in
mine own hands, and dress it with mine own labour ; and there
fore, if thou, 0 Solomon, canst receive from thine to the propor
tion of a thousand, thy workmen and farmers will look for the
fifth part to come unto their share, whereas the gain of my vine
yard ariseth wholly and only unto myself.

13. "O thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions
hearken unto thy voice: cause me to hear it."~\ — Sith therefore
such is my care of thee, and joy in thee, 0 my Church, which
consistest of the particular assemblies of men professing my Name,
see thou be diligent in declaring my will, and giving holy coun
sels to all thy fellow-members : speak forth my praise in the
great congregations, which all attend willingly upon thee, and let
me hear the voice of thy constant and faithful confession of me
before the world.

316 PARAPHRASE UPON

The Church.

14. " O my wellbeloved, flee away, and be like unto the roe
or to the young hart upon the mountain of spices."] — I will most
gladly do what thou commandest, 0 my Saviour ; but that I may
perform it accordingly, be thou, which art according to thy bodily
presence in the highest heavens, ever present with me by the
Spirit, and hasten thy glorious coming to my full redemption.

ISAIAH.

I. a. " Hear, O heavens, and give ear, 0 earth : for the LORD
hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they
have rebelled against me."] — Since that men are deaf unto my
words, I will turn me and my speech to the very heavens and
earth, and call them to witness against those which should be my
people : hear therefore, 0 heavens, and give ear, 0 earth ; for it
is not I that speak, but the Lord himself complaineth of the un-
thankfulness of Israel, &c.

3. "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib."]
— What a wonder and shame it is, that they which should be
more than men are indeed worse than beasts; for behold, the
very ox and the ass, which are the dullest of all creatures, yet
they take thankful notice of their owner, and of the crib wherein
they are fed, &c.

5. "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more
and more : the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint."] —
I have already tried your reformation by many chastisements, yea,
judgments, yet ye will not amend ; to what purpose should I cor
rect you further, since I see you do still grow worse and worse ?
those parts of you that should be best, and are most eminent and
of greatest use, are extremely out of order.

6. " From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no
soundness in it ; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores :
they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified
with ointment."] — Even from the highest to the lowest, from the
meanest drudge unto the greatest of your princes, ye are all
miserably disordered and sinful ; and are accordingly plagued, so
as none of you are free from some grievous judgment ; and such
are your sins and your judgments, that they have made themselves
incapable of remedy or mitigation.

SOLOMON'S SONG, VIII. 14.— ISAIAH I. 1-25. 317

8. "And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vine
yard."] — The country round about being wasted, Jerusalem itself
is left standing alone desolate as a cottage in a vineyard, &c., and
hath no more recourse unto it, and traffick in it, than if it were
already besieged, as ere long it shall be.

9. " Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small
remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have
been like unto Gomorrah."] — If God had not been gracious unto
us, contrary to our deservings, and restrained the fury of our
enemies, and mercifully reserved this small remnant unto us, we
had been utterly destroyed and laid waste, like to Sodom and
Gomorrah.

10. " Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom."] — Since
ye have made yourselves then as sinful as those infamous cities
that were destroyed with fire from heaven, let me give you the
names of those whom ye have imitated : hear therefore the word
of the Lord, O ye rulers of Sodom, &c.

11. ' ' To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto
me ? saith the LORD : I am full of the burnt offerings of rams,"
&c.] — To what purpose is the formality of these your outward
sacrifices ; as if the multitude of your oblations, or the very act
done, could please me without due affections ?

14. "Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth :
they are a trouble unto me ; I am weary to bear them."~\ — Those
your solemn feasts which I have instituted, and do therefore well
approve in themselves, yet as they are celebrated by you, I loathe
and abhor them, &c.

21. " How is the faithful city become an harlot ! it was full of
judgment."] — Jerusalem was once my faithful spouse, an holy city :
how is it that she is now turned strumpet, and become desperately
lewd and debauched ? &c.

22. "Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water."]
— Those good graces that thou didst once profess to have are
now utterly corrupted and depraved ; thine obedience, which was
once sincere and pure, is now adulterated with abominable wick
edness.

25. " And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge
away thy dross, and take away all thy tin."] — Yet in my judg
ment I will remember mercy : I will not utterly destroy thee, as I
might, but 1 will turn my hand upon thee for thy restoration ;
and whereas I might burn thee quite up, yet I will only purge

318 PARAPHRASE UPON

away thy dross, and take away the base metal from thee, that the
small remainder of the pure and precious may be reserved.

29. " For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have
desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have
chosen.""] — They shall be ashamed of that foul idolatry wherewith
ye have been tainted, and of those groves which ye have used to
that purpose, and of those gardens and orchards which ye have
so employed.

30. " For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a
garden that hath no water.""] — And if ye again relapse, ye shall
be left like one of the oaks of those destroyed groves, without leaf
or sap ; or like one of those gardens which you have abused, in a
time of drought, without water.

31." And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a
spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench
them.'1'1'] —And that mighty idol whereto ye trust shall be as tow ;
and the maker and worshipper of that idol shall be as a spark ;
and both of them shall burn together with unquenchable fire.

II. 2. " And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the
mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of
the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills," &c.] — It shall
come to pass in the days of the Messias exhibited, and the Gospel
revealed, that the Church of God shall not be obscurely confined
to a corner of the world, but shall be eminently conspicuous ; and
so famously noted, that the Gentiles shall come in, and generally
adjoin themselves unto it.

3. " For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the
LORD from Jerusalem."] — For in the evangelical Church only,
which is figured by Zion, shall the truth of God's sacred word be
professed ; and from it shall spread itself over the world.

4. " And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke
many people : and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into priminghooks."] — And the true Messias
shall, by his spiritual government, rule over many nations, and
hold many several kinds of people in an awful subjection, and
shall so calm and quiet them that they shall be altogether com
posed to peace ; and therefore shall turn their swords, whereof
they shall have no further use, into instruments of husbandry, &c.

5. " 0 house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of
the LORD."]— Yea, those new-converted Gentiles shall be ready
to provoke and incite Israel to an holy and conscionable obedi-

ISAIAH I. 29.— II. 15. 319

ence, and say, 0 house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk together
in the clear and glorious light of the Gospel, to the praise and
honour of him that hath called us.

6. " Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of
Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are sooth
sayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the
children of strangers.111] — 0 God, while thou admittest of the
Gentiles, thou findest too just cause to cast off thine own people ;
for that they are full of the superstitions and idolatries of the
Syrians ; and are given to magical practices like the Philistines ;
and take pleasure rather to imitate the false worship of foreign
nations, than to keep close to thy holy prescriptions.

7. " Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there
any end of their treasures ; their land is also full of horses, nei
ther is there any end of their chariots."] — They give themselves
over to the immoderate desire and pursuit of wealth ; neither is
there any end of their covetous endeavours to heap up ill-gotten
treasures : they do also, in a proud or distrustful affectation, lay
for abundance of horses of war ; neither can they be satisfied with
the number of chariots ; as if these were the strength wherein they
trusted.

9. ' ' And the mean man boweth down, and the great man hum-
bleth himself: therefore forgive them not."] — 0 God, since they
are so vile, and will not be reclaimed from their idolatry, spare
them not, but make them examples of thy justice.

10. "Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear
of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty."] — And now, O thou
wilfully idolatrous and rebellious people, since thou wouldest not
prevent these judgments, see if thou canst withdraw thyself from
them : go, hide thee in the rock, or shroud thyself within the
earth from his vengeance, &c.

12. " For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every
one that is proud and lofty .""] — For in that terrible day the
fierce judgments of the Lord of hosts shall seize upon every one
that hath proudly and stubbornly resisted his word and ordi
nance, &c.

13. "And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and
lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan."] — And upon all those
proud and lofty potentates which bear themselves as high as the
cedars of Lebanon, and as stiff as the oaks of Bashan.

15. " And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall."]

320 PARAPHRASE UPON

— And all those high towers and strong forts, wherein vain men
have wont to put their trust, shall be cast to the ground :

1 6. "And upon all the ships of Tar^hish, and upon all pleasant
pictures."] — And all that rich traffick which you were wont to
have with Cilicia and the countries round about shall be cut off :
and those pleasant and costly tapestries and pictures which you
had wont to bring home shall fail and disappoint you :

20. " In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his
idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship,
to the moles and to the bats."] — And those idolaters, which had
wont to pride themselves in the glory of their false worship, shall
now be ashamed of their fopperies ; and in a just indignation shall
hide up their puppets in blind corners from the view of men.

22. " Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils : for
wherein is he to be accounted of?"] — I see, it is your vain self-
confidence that hath deceived you ; if ye therefore regard your
own safety and peace, cast off this false trust upon so poor and
impotent a thing as man, whose breath is in his nostrils ; for what
can he avail you, or how can he give you any protection from the
wrath of the Almighty ?

III. i . " For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take
away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the
whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water."] — That where
by the life of man is supported and sustained, even bread, and
whatsoever necessary food, will I take away from Jerusalem ;

2. " The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the
prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient."] — And whatsoever
else you are wont to put confidence in, the mighty and strong
warrior, the awful judge, the holy and learned prophet, the pru
dent counsellor, the ancient and experienced senator.

6. " When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of
his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let
this ruin be under thy hand."]— Whereas men usually are wont
to affect preeminence and authority among their neighbours, ye
shall be driven to that strait, that ye shall be fain to force honour
upon your brethren, where ye see but means to subsist and live ;
and a man shall take hold of his brother, and importune and con
strain him, saying, Thou hast clothing ; be thou our ruler ; and
let the reparation of this miserable ruin, if it be possible, be thy
work.

7. "In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer ;

ISAIAH II. 16.— IV. i. 321

for in my house is neither bread nor clothing : make me not a
ruler of the people/'] — In that day he shall resist the motion and
disclaim the government with an oath, saying, It is not for me to
meddle with the command of you, or to undertake the repairing
of your ruins, for I have neither bread nor clothing.

9. " And they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not."] —
They do impudently make open profession of their sin, even as
Sodom did, without all fear or shame, &c.

1 2. " As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women
rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee
to err, and destroy the way of thy paths."] — As for my people,
they have brought themselves to that pass, as that even very
children trample upon them by proud oppressions, and they lie
down willingly under them ; and every effeminate usurper domi-
neereth over them at pleasure, and, which is worse, those spiritual
guides, which should lead them in the way of life, mislead them
unto utter perdition.

15. "What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and
grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts."] —
What mean ye, 0 ye governors, which should be the only refuge
and protection of my people, to offer this cruel violence unto them ?
how dare ye thus unmercifully oppress the poor ?

16. "Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk
with stretched forth necks :"] — Neither only are the men thus
vicious, but the women also are given over to a proud newfangle-
ness, even the dames of Jerusalem go in an haughty fashion, &c.

17. "Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of
the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover
their secret parts."] — As all the parts of their body are tainted
with their disguise, so the Lord will in his justice punish them in
all parts, from the crown of the head to the sole of their feet, and
will lay open this their loathsome and deformed nakedness to the
eyes of the world.

24. "And burning instead of beauty."] — Instead of beauty,
which they had wont so curiously to preserve that they would not
so much as look forth into the heat of the sun, shall be a vehe
ment burning and scorching of the skin.

IV. i. "And in that day seven women shall take hold of one
man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own ap
parel : only let us be called by thy name, to take away our re
proach."] — Upon that slaughter and vastation there shall be so

BP. HALL, VOL. III. T

322 PARAPHRASE UPON

few men left, as that seven women shall lay hold and hang upon
one man with importunate suit to yield but to their protection
and cohabitation, saying, It shall cost thee nothing, we have food
and raiment of our own, only do thou bear the name of our husband,
and take from us the reproach of our widowhood and sterility.

2. " In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and
glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely
for them that are escaped of Israel."] — In that day, the day of
the blessed restoration of the Church, shall the Messias, as the
Branch of the Lord, sprout out gloriously and happily out of the
seemingly dead stock of Judah, and excellent and pleasant fruits
of his appearance shall glad the hearts of those that are the
faithful remainders of Israel.

3. " And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and
he that remaineih in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every
one that is written among the living in Jerusalem."] — And it shall
come to pass, that those who pertain to the true Church of Christ
shall be holy ; even every one that shall be a lively member of
the mystical body of Christ ;

4. " When the LORD shall have washed away the filth of the
daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem
from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the
spirit of burning."] — When the Lord shall by his severe judgments
have washed and wiped away the blemishes and grievous sins of
his Church, and shall have delivered his Jerusalem from all the
pollutions wherewith she was tainted, by the power of his Spirit
and the sharpness of his chastisements.

5. "And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of
mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day,
and the shining of a flaming fire by night : for upon all the
glory shall be a defence."] — There shall be no corner of his
Church wherein the grace of God shall not marvellously appear,
and wherein he will not manifest himself and his merciful presence
and protection, as he did to his ancient people of Israel, by a cloud
and smoke by day, and by the shining of a flaming fire by night.

6. " And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day
time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert
from storm and from rain."] — And whereas the Church shall be
still subject to the scorching heats and tempestuous storms of per
secution, God shall erect a safe tabernacle for her to shade her
from the heat, and shelter her from those violent tempests.

ISAIAH IV. 2.— V. 14. 323

V. J . " Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my be
loved touching his vineyard. My beloved hath a vineyard in a
very fruitful hill."] — I will sing a song to Christ, the dear Bride
groom of his Church, concerning his vineyard of Israel. My God
and Saviour had planted his Church of Israel in a very fruitful
soil ; with the greatest advantage of place, even in the highest
eminence, where he might be likely to receive the most generous
fruit of obedience.

2 . ' ' And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof,
and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the
midst of it, and also made a winepress therein : and he looked
tliat it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild
grapes."] — He fenced it about with his gracious protection and
good laws : he removed out of it all the apparent impediments of
growth and fruitfulness : he furnished it with choice persons, and
those persons with excellent graces : he gave to it proofs of his
vigilant care over it, and means to express and make use of that
sweet fruit which it should yield : and now he made account that
it should return unto him the pleasant clusters of holy obedience ;
and behold, it runs forth into miserable disorder, and yields no
thing but the sour and distasteful fruits of sin and wickedness.

3. " And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah,
judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.'1''] — And now, 0
my people, I dare appeal to yourselves, and make you judges of
this case betwixt you and me ; say whether you can choose but
condemn yourselves.

9. " In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many
houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant."]
— Thus hath God pleased to reveal his will unto me, saying,
Whereas these oppressors affect to join house to house, certainly
I will cause their houses to be desolate ; and as they dispeopled
towns and houses, their houses, though great and fair, shall be
without inhabitants.

10. " Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the
seed of an homer shall yield an ephah."] — Yea, so will I curse
that ground with barrenness which they have wrung from the

' poor owners, as that ten acres of vineyard shall yield but six gal
lons of wine ; and so much ground as seven bushels is able to sow
shall yield but three parts back again to the owner.

14. " Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her
mouth without measure : and their glory, and their multitude,

Y 2

324 PARAPHRASE UPON

and their pomp, and lie that rejoiccth, shall descend into it"] —
Neither shall the wrath of God stay here, and take up with their
captivity and famine ; but he hath prepared further judgment for
these merciless oppressors, for he shall cause the insatiable gulf of
hell to devour them, and to swallow up all their pomp and jollity.

17. "Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the
waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat."] — But though
the Lord will take this just vengeance on his rebellious enemies,
yet will he be ever gracious to his own flock ; and shall cause the
lambs thereof to feed comfortably in their wonted pastures ; and
those places which the insolent enemies had wasted, shall be again
possessed by his people, whom their long captivity hath made
strangers to their own land.

] 8. " Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity,
and sin as it were with a cart rope."] — Woe be to them that are
so set upon wickedness, as that they use all possible persuasions
and provocations to draw themselves to a lawless commission of
sin, and continuance in it.

19. "That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work,
that we may see it : and let the counsel of the Holy One of
Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!""] — That make
light of the threatened judgments, and in a scornful distrust dare
say, Why doth not God hasten these menaced plagues? fain
would we see the performance of these terrible threats : let not
God say, but do : let that which God professeth to have deter
mined against us be speedily effected.

20. "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil."] —
Woe be unto them that colour wickedness with fair pretences,
and cry down goodness with slanderous calumniations, &c.

22. "Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men
of strength to mingle strong drink."] — Woe be to them that im
prove their strength to excess, glorying that they are able to pour
in and to bear much wine ; and affect to be thought and approved
strong and mighty drinkers.

24. " So their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom
shall go up as dust."]— So they shall be utterly destroyed; and
shall be as a tree whose root is rotten, and whose blossom flies '
away like dust, &c.

25. " And the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn
in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned
away, but his hand is stretched out still."]— The neighbour hills

ISAIAH V. 17.— VI. 2 325

did tremble with the noise and fury of that siege ; and their car
casses lay torn'and mangled in the midst of the streets ; yet all
this cannot bewarning enough to this stubborn people to turn
from their sins, &c.

26. "And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far,
and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth."] — He will
raise up war against them, even from nations that dwell afar off;
and will stir up and provoke enemies against them from the far
thest parts of the earth, &c.

27. "None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none
shall slumber nor sleep."] — They shall come with such fierceness
and spirit to this war, that they shall not be sensible of any weari
ness : they shall march nimbly and boldly, no one shall give him
self to slumber in the way, &c.

28. " Their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their
wheels like a whirlwind."] — There shall be both terror and vigour
in their horses prepared for this war ; and their chariot wheels
shall come rattling furiously on, like some dreadful tempest, and
fly swiftly like a whirlwind.

30. "And in that day they shall roar against them like the
roaring of the sea : and if one look unto the land, behold darkness
and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof."] —
What speak I of the roaring of a lion ? yea, these Chaldeans,
which I will bring upon them, shall come roaring in like a mighty
sea in a tempest ; with such terror, that all shall be filled with con
fusion ; the earth shall be darkened with sorrow, and the heavens
shall yield no glimpse of comfort to the distressed.

VI. i . " In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the
temple."] — In the year that king Uzziah died, I had a vision from
God ; wherein it pleased the Lord to represent unto me a clear
sign of the majestical presence of the Son of God, sitting on high
upon a glorious throne, and the train of his shining robe filled the
temple :

2. "Above it stood the seraphirns : each one had six wings;
with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly."] — Who, as he was glorious in himself,
so in his attendants; for, over the throne stood the angels of
heaven : each one had six wings ; with two whereof he covered his
face, as not being able to behold the brightness of that divine
majesty ; with two he covered his feet, as favouring the weakness

326 PARAPHRASE UPON

of human eyes, that cannot behold the least splendour of those
celestial creatures; with two he did swiftly move, and fly to execute
the charge of God.

4. " And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that
cried, and the house was filled with smoke."] — So strong and
dreadful was that voice of theirs, that the very posts of the doors
and the pillars of the temple were moved therewith ; and, as it
had wont to be when God would signify his presence in that sanc
tuary, the whole house was filled with smoke.

5. "Then said I, Woe is me ! for I am undone: because I am
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of un
clean lips."] — Then said I. as one terrified with that sight, "Woe
is me ! there is no way but death with me : I have delivered
messages from this holy God, but I am not nor have been so sancti
fied as that I might be safely fit for this great service.

6. "Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live
coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the
altar."] — Then one of those bright angels flew unto me, having a
live coal in his hand, signifying the purging and purifying efficacy
of the Spirit, which he had taken, not from an ordinary and com
mon hearth, but from the altar of God ; the true type of Christ
the Saviour.

7. " Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken
away, and thy sin purged."] — Lo, this coal touching thy lips is a
certain sign and representation of that powerful operation of the
Spirit of God whereby thy sin is purged away, and thou enabled
to this great function.

8. " Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I
send, and who will go for us ? Then said I, Here am I ; send me."]
— Then the Lord represented a voice to my ear, saying, after the
manner of men, Whom shall I send to this people ? and who is
willing to deliver this message from us ? Then, when as once my
lips had been thus touched and sanctified, I did gladly put myself
forward, and said, Here I am, send me.

9. " And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but
understand not ; and see ye indeed, but perceive not."] — Be not
discouraged : I shall send thee to an obstinate people, whose per-
verseness I do so well know, that I would have thee tell them
beforehand what I expect from them ; viz. that they will hear
indeed, but not care to understand ; they will see, but not regard
to perceive.

ISAIAH VI. 4.— VJ I. 6. 327

10 "Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears
heavy, and shut their eyes ; lest they see with their eyes, and hear
with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and
be healed."] — Yea, more than so, through the occasion of thy
prophecy and holy ministry amongst them, their hearts shall be
hardened and made obstinate, and their ears dulled and deafened ;
that, in my just jndgment, they may be given up to a spiritual
insensibleriess, as a due punishment of their careless neglects of
my ordinances, and that thereupon may follow their deserved
condemnation.

11. "Then said I, Lord, how long? and he answered, Until
the cities be wasted without inhabitant."] — Then said I, in a meet
compassion of my people, But alas, Lord, how long shall this judg
ment lie upon thine Israel ? and he said, Until the cities be utterly
wasted and left, &c.

13. "But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and
shall be eaten : as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in
them, when they cast their leaves : so the holy seed shall be the
substance thereof."] — But yet there shall be a tenth part of Israel
that shall return after it hath been dispersed and consumed, and
be a seed for the rest ; even as it is with a tree, which having cast
her leaves, yet hides the sap within the stock or bulk, which buds
forth again in due season ; so shall the remainder of the holy seed,
which for the time seemed to lie dead, sprout forth into an abund
ant increase.

VII. 2. " And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is
confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the
neart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the
wind."] — It was told to some of the family of Ahaz, the king of
Judah, saying, The king of Assyria is confederate with Israel, to
make a second war upon Judah. And the heart of A haz and his
subjects were moved and shaken with fear, as the trees of the wood
are moved with a strong wind.

4. " Fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these
smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and
of the son of Remaliah."] — Fear not these two kings of Assyria
and Israel, for they are but as two short ends of firebrands, not
burning but smoking, which may threaten, but can work no com
bustion amongst you ; I mean Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah
the son of Remaliah.

6. " And let us make a breach therein for us. and set a king in

1528 PARAPHRASE UPON

the midst of it, even" &c.] — Let us, instead of Ahaz, set up a king-
in Jerusalem, one of the most renowned peers of Syria.

8. " For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Da
mascus is Rezin ; and within threescore and five years shall
Ephraim be broken," &c.] — Damascus is the head city of Syria,
and Rezin is the head or king of Damascus : so let him still be,
and content himself with his own territories; but as for Ephraim,
which joins with Syria against thee, ere threescore years be ex
pired, it shall be wasted and dispeopled.

9. "And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of
Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall
not be established."] — In the mean time, as Samaria is the head
city of Israel, so let Pekah the son of Remaliah, content himself
to be the head or king of Samaria. These things I have foretold
you from God, 0 ye men of Jerusalem : if ye will not give credit
unto them, the fault and the punishment shall be yours ; ye shall
fail of that protection and stability which you expect.

12. "But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the
LORD."] — I will demand no sign ; for why should I, since I do al
ready believe the promise of God made to me ? and why should
I tempt God by urging him to give proof and evidence of that
whereof I am sufficiently assured 1

13. "And he said, Hear ye now, 0 house of David: Is it a
small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God
also ?"] — Hear me now, O ye of the house of my dear and faith
ful servant David, whose sin is therefore aggravated by the holi
ness of your forefathers ; Is it a small thing for you to reject and
contemn me that am a man like yourselves, but ye will, with your
hypocrisy and disobedience provoke ajid abuse my God also, whose
message I bear ? Are ye not ashamed and afraid, under a pretence
of piety to refuse the gracious offer and command of God that
sent me ?

14. "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Be
hold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his
name Immanuel."]— Therefore the Lord shall, without your will
or assent, give you a sign, which shall be no other than that an
cient engagement of his to his Church. Behold, in the fulness of
time a virgin shall miraculously conceive and bear a son, and
she shall, by the appointment of God himself, call his name, God
with us.

15. "Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to re-

ISAIAH VII. 8-22. 329

fuse the evil, and choose the good."] — He shall have a true human
body, and shall he sustained with that ordinary nourishment where
with children are wont to be fed : and shall grow up in experi
mental knowledge, as well as in stature, and shall thus enable
himself, like us, to refuse the evil and choose the good.

1 6. " For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and
choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of
both her kings."] — But because you may plead that it will be
long ere this promise be effected, behold, before this child of mine,
Shear-jashub, shall come to the age of discretion, this land of
Israel and of Syria shall be forsaken of both these kings, Ilezin
and Pekah, for they shall both ere long be swept away by an un
timely death.

17. "From the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even
the king of Assyria."] — It was an heavy day to you when the ten
tribes departed away from Judah ; but this judgment which I will
bring upon you shall be rather worse than that, even the sword
of the king of Assyria.

1 8. " That the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the utter
most part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the
land of Assyria."] — The Lord shall call for and excite mighty
enemies against thee out from the farther coasts of the river of
Nilus and out of Assyria ; even Ethiopians, Edomites, and other
puissant nations, which shall come as thick as swarms of flies or
bees.

20. " In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that
is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of As
syria, the head, and the hair of the feet : and it shall also con
sume the beard."] — In that day the Lord shall, by the hand of
the Assyrians and their associates, make utter strip and waste of
Judah by the cruelty of those hired forces which they shall bring
up ; even as if a man should be hired with his razor to shave off
all the hair of the head and the whole body, even to the very
stumps, so as there shall be no mention where it grew.

21." And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall
nourish a young cow, and two sheep;"] — And it shall come to
pass in those days, that a man which had formerly wont to keep
whole flocks and droves shall now be glad to take up with one
young cow and two sheep ;

22. "And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk
that they shall give he shall eat butter : for butter and honey

330 PARAPHRASE UPON

shall every one eat that is left in the land."] — And though this
proportion be very small, yet it shall be answerable to the per
sons which shall be left alive to spend it; who shall be so few,
that this poor stock of cattle shall be able to feed them : a small
quantity of butter and honey shall be enough to sustain that small
remainder of men.

24. " With arrows and with bows shall men come thither ; be
cause all the land shall become briers and thorns."] —So desolate
shall the country be, that where before were towns inhabited and
fields tilled, there shall be now solitary deserts, the dens of wild
beasts ; so as the hunters shall come thither with arrows and
bows to pursue their game :

25. " And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock,
there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns : but it
shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of
lesser cattle."] — And men shall be glad to betake themselves into
waste wildernesses for their hidingplaces : and there shall be glad
to plant themselves and employ their husbandry upon the desert
mountains, which they shall dig with their mattocks instead of
ploughing ; insomuch as there shall be no place for briers and
thorns to grow in those desolate hills, but they shall be improved
to the use of their oxen and lesser cattle.

VIII. i . " Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man's
pen concerning Maher-shaial-hash-baz."] — Take thee a large roll,
and write therein with large text letters, that word of threatened
judgment which thou shalt take for the name of thy son ; even
Maher-shalal-hash-baz : those four words compounded in one shall
be enough to fill thy scroll and the hearts of the people with an
expectation of the destruction menaced.

2. "And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the
priest," &c.]— And I took unto me faithful witnesses both of this
act that I did in fastening this roll upon the doors of the temple,
and of the name given to my said son in his circumcision ; even
Uriah the priest, &c.

3. "And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and
bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-
hash-baz."] — For I had conversed with my wife the prophetess,
and she had conceived and borne a son ; and the Lord had ap
pointed me to call his name, Make speed to the spoil, Hasten to
the prey ; in a sign and denunciation of that judgment which the
Assyrians shall bring upon Jerusalem.

ISAIAH VII. 24.— VIII. 13. 331

4. For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father,
and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria
shall be taken away before the king of Assyria."] — For ere the
child shall come to the age of speech and discretion, to distinguish
his parents from strangers, the general of the king of Assyria
shall spoil the countries of Israel and Syria, whereof the chief cities
are Damascus and Samaria.

6. " Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah
that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son/'] — For
asmuch as this people have not rested themselves upon the gracious
promises of God's protection, but being disheartened with their
own paucity and weakness, have sought to other helps, and de
pended upon Rezin and Pekah, the kings of Syria and Israel.

8. " And he shall pass through Judah ; he shall overflow and
go over, he shall reach even to the neck ; and the stretching out
of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land. O Immanuel."] —
The power of the king of Assyria shall spread itself over the whole
land of Judah to destroy it ; even over that holy land which is
consecrated to thy name, O thou Saviour of thy Church, God and
man ; which yet, because it so nearly pertaineth unto thee, shall
at last find the benefit of thy protection.

9. " Associate yourselves, 0 ye people, and ye shall be broken
in pieces."] — Go to then, 0 ye enemies of God's people, band
yourselves together : join your hearts, and heads, and hands in
one ; yet ye shall, in spite of all your power, be crushed and
broken in pieces, &c.

ii." For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and
instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people,
saying,"] — For the Lord did not only speak to me, but with his
mighty hand guided and directed me, that I should not yield my
self to a conformity with the sins of this people, and give way to
their infidelity and obstinacy, saying,

1 2. " Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this
people shall say, A confederacy ; neither fear ye their fear, nor
be afraid."] — Say ye not, out of your distrust, Let us make a
confederacy with the Assyrians, without whose aid we cannot
stand against our enemies ; neither be ye dejected with this cow
ardly fear of them that rise up against you.

13. "Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your
fear, and let him be your dread."] — Give ye glory to God, in the
confidence and praise of his almighty power, whereby he sub-

332 PARAPHRASE UPON

dueth all things : let your holy and awful fear be only bent upon
him, who can deliver or destroy you at pleasure.

14. "And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of
stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel,

o

for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ""] — He
shall be a rock of sure defence to those that fear him ; but a stone
of stumblino- and a rock of offence to those that distrust and dis-

o

obey him, even of both the houses of Judah and Ephraim ; and
for a snare to those that are godless and rebellious, even in Jeru
salem itself.

1 6. " Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples."]
— Give full assurance to my people of the certainty of this pro
phecy, and seal it up as a law that shall not be reversed.

17. "And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from
the house of Jacob, and I will look for him."] — For my part,
however others entertain these words of God, I will make account
of their assured performance ; and depend upon the good provi
dence of that just God, who deservedly withdraws his favour from
the rebellious house of Jacob.

1 8. "Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given
me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of
hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion."] — Behold, I, and those
faithful disciples whom the Lord hath by my means converted
unto him, are made a gazingstock and wonderment to the chil
dren of Irsael; and this is a judgment that is justly come upon
them from the Lord of hosts, which hath, with so small effect,
graciously manifested himself in his temple on mount Zion.

19. "And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that
have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter :
should not a people seek unto their God ? for the living to the
dead?"] — What a madness is it in you not to cleave fast unto the
Lord, your true and only God? For if the profane heathen shall
think they have reason to persuade you to depend upon magi
cians and wizards, that use devilish enchantments, is it not a shame
that you should not find cause to seek and cleave unto your only
true God ? Should we be so foolish as to seek in the case of the
living to the dead ?

20. "To the law and to the testimony : if they speak not ac
cording to this word, it is because there is no light in them."]—
No ; far be that from us : let us have recourse to the law and to
the testimony : that is it which God hath given us for our infal-

ISAIAH VIII. 14.— IX. 3. 333

lible direction; and if any man speak either without or against
this word, it is because he hath not the true light of grace or
understanding in him.

21. "And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and
hungry : and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be
hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and
their God, and look upward."] — And whereas they hoped to
have been fixed in this good land for ever, they shall now only
pass through it as fugitives, being hardly bestead and pinched
with hunger ; and then they shall fret and gall themselves with
late and vain indignation, and shall curse their idol and their
king, whose confidence hath misled them ; and when they are
thus thoroughly distressed, they shall begin to look upward, to
the hand of that God by whom they are punished.

22. "And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble
and darkness, dimness of anguish ; and they shall be driven to
darkness."] — Neither can they expect comfort any other way ;
for if they look unto the earth, there is nothing but misery and
affliction ; yea even extremity of anguish : so as that sorrow and
distress, whereinto they shall be plunged, shall drive them forcibly
to look up to heaven for succour.

IX. i . " Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in
her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of
Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more griev
ously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee
of the nations.""] — Yet, though this calamity shall be exceeding
great, yet it shall not be utterly so extreme and disconsolate as
that former, which the land of Israel shall endure when Tiglath
Pileser king of Assyria shall have miserably afflicted it, and when
it was conquered and wasted by Shalmanescr ; and those mari
time parts thereof which were beyond Jordan, bordering upon
Tyre and Sidon, were utterly wasted.

2. "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great
light : they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon
them hath the light shined."] — There is a comfortable assurance
of delivery in this miserable captivity ; for, behold, the Messiah
shall certainly come, and by his doctrine arid Spirit shall en
lighten those that sat in darkness, and that abide in the shadow
of death, beginning his blessed Gospel in those utmost skirts of
Galilee.

3. "Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the
joy : they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as

334 PARAPHRASE UPON

men rejoice when they divide the spoil.11] —When thou shalt thus
graciously visit thy people, howsoever the nation shall not he
greater than now it is, yet the joy of it shall he more ; as now,
contrarily, the people are more, but the joy is not more : then shall
our rejoicing be great and unspeakable, such as is wont to be of
the husbandman when he fetcheth in a rich and seasonable har
vest, or of a soldier when he divideth the spoil.

4. "For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the
staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of
Midian."] — For thou shalt have delivered thy people from the
slavish yoke of their tyrannical oppressors, and from all their cruel
impositions, as thou didst deliver them from the oppression of the
Midiariites in the time of the Judges.

5. " For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and
garments rolled in blood ; but this shall be with burning and fuel
of fire."] — Commonly, every battle is with confused noise, and
fearful effusion of blood, and wallowing therein ; but here the case
was otherwise : God did fight from heaven for his people ; and
did, as it were, set a fire amongst his enemies, causing them to fall
one upon another, and to consume themselves.

6. " For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given : and
the government shall be upon his shoulder," &c.] — Neither is it
for God's people to rest in the temporal deliverance from their
captivity, but to erect their thoughts unto higher hopes, even the
happy assurances of salvation, by the true Messias, who is to come
into the world ; For unto us that Child is born, and unto us that
Son of God is given, who shall take upon his shoulders the per
petual government of his Church.

10. "The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn
stones :" &c.] — Behold, we will gain by our ruins, for instead of
the bricks, which shall be beaten down, we will build more sump
tuously with freestone, &c.

n. " Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin
against him, and join his enemies together;"] — Because Israel
doth so fondly rely upon Rezin the king of Syria, God shall set
up enemies against that king, on whose strength they have pre
sumed, and shall conjoin their forces to his destruction.

12. "The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they
shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not
turned away, but his hand is stretched out still."] — The Syrians
from the east, and Philistines from the west, shall set upon Israel,
like to some ravenous beasts with open mouth ; and yet God hath

ISAIAH IX. 4.— X.5. 335

not utterly done with them, but hath still further judgments in
store for them.

14. "Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail,
branch and rush, in one day."] — Therefore the Lord will cut off
from Israel, both the noblest and basest of the people ; the strong
est and the weakest, and most contemptible of that nation.

15. " And the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail."] — The
prophet that teacheth lies, he is the most vile and despicable of
all the people.

18. "For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the
briers and thorns."] — Your wickedness is that which the fire of
God's wrath taketh hold of; that is it which shall devour both
your tall cedars and your low shrubs ; and shall not leave till the
very briers and thorns be consumed, &c.

20. " And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry ;
and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied :
they shall eat every^man the flesh of his own arm:"] — No Is
raelite shall spare his brother, but shall snatch on all hands what
he can get by extreme violence ; and shall insatiably spoil and
devour those which are his own flesh.

21. " Manasseh, Ephraim ; and Ephraim, Manasseh : and they
together shall be against Judah."] — Those tribes which are in
the highest league of love conjoined together shall fall into deadly
hostility one against the other : Manasseh shall fall foul upon his
brother Ephraim, and Ephraim upon Manasseh, and both shall join
in the quarrel against Judah, &c.

X. i. "Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and
that write grievousness which they have prescribed."] — To begin
with the governors : woe be to them who make unjust and bloody
decrees against their inferiors, and that enact and prescribe griev
ous things by way of oppression of the poor.

3. " To whom will ye flee for help ? and where will ye leave
your glory ?"] — What do you think shall become of this glorious
estate which you have scraped together by rapine and extortion ?

4. " Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and
they shall fall under the slain."] — Though I should not denounce
or draw any judgment upon them, they shall of themselves run
into such grievous calamity, as that they shall fall down amongst
the prisoners and amongst the slain, &c.

5. " O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their
hand is mine indignation/'] — Come hither then, O thou Assyrian,

336 PARAPHRASE UPON

come and execute my just wrath upon my people ; for thou art
the rod of mine anger, and the weapons which are in thine hand,
whereby thou fightest against Judah, are wielded by mine indig
nation.

6. " I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against
the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the
spoil."] — I will send this Assyrian against that dissembling nation
of the Jews, which make an hypocritical profession of my name ;
and against those idolatrous Israelites, whom I hate, &c.

7. " Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think
so : but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a
few."] — But though I intend the Assyrian to be my scourge for
Israel, and to execute my will upon them, yet he hath no such
meaning as to fulfil my purpose herein : all his drift and inten
tion is a cruel and bloody satisfying of his own merciless and am
bitious mind; neither aims he at any thing else but a malicious
destruction and a conquest of many nations.

9. "Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad ? is
not Samaria as Damascus?"] — Is not the strong city of Calno as
unable to hold out against me, and as sure mine, as Carchemish,
which I have already won ? Is not Hamath as sure to be subdued
by me as Arpad which I have taken ? Is not Samaria as sure to
be mine as Damascus now is ?

10. "As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and
whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria ;"]
— As I have vanquished those kingdoms which worshipped those
idols which were accounted, in the reputation of the world and
outward glory, far to surpass the deities of Jerusalem and Sa
maria :

u. "Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols,
so do to Jerusalem and her idols?"] — So, what should hinder me
to subdue these also ? The gods of Jerusalem are no other, no
better than those of Samaria ; why should I not therefore subdue
them, as well as the other ?

14. " And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the
people : and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered
all the earth ; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened
the mouth, or peeped."]— As for all the riches of the nations
about me, saith the proud Assyrian, are they not to me as a
bird's nest, the eggs whereof are left open by the dam to the
hand of the passenger ; which a man may take up quietly, and

ISAIAH X.6-22. bS7

not have so much as a bird's wing moved against him, nor so
much as a chirping noise of complaint ?

15. " Shall the axe boast itself against him that hewcth there
with ? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh
it ? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or
as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood."] — Is
not the Assyrian as my axe to hew down Judah, my saw to divide
it, my rod to scourge it, my staff to beat it ? and shall this axe,
this saw, this rod, this staff, magnify itself against the hand that
useth and wieldeth it ? as if the instrument could do aught with
out or against the arm that moves it.

17. " And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy
One for a flame : and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his
briers in one day."] — Since the Assyrian hath so despised Israel,
Israel shall be well avenged of him ; for, as commonly fire is not
separated from light, that light of my countenance which Israel
shall have from me shall be as a fire to burn up the Assyrians ;
and this my people, which I have singled for my own peculiar,
shall be as a flame to those enemies which shall consume them,
even to the meanest of their host, in one day.

1 8. "And they shall be as when a standardbearer fainteth."]
— They shall be utterly disheartened ; and give themselves up to
a weak and heartless despair, as a beaten troop when their ensign
yieldeth.

19. "And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that
a child may write them."] — And the people of Assyria, which
were a thick forest, shall now be brought to such a paucity of
trees, that a child, which can scarce count his own fingers, may
reckon their number.

20. " Shall no more again stay upon him that smote them ; but
shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth."] —
My people, thus instructed and reformed by their affliction, shall
learn now to trust no more to the arm of flesh, which they see
may be easily made against them ; but shall depend wholly upon
the Lord, for aid and protection.

22. " For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea,
yet a remnant of them shall return : the consumption decreed
shall overflow with righteousness."] — For though I have promised
to thee, 0 Jacob, and to thy father Abraham, that thy seed shall
be as the sand of the sea ; yet, since they have thus provoked me
and corrupted their ways, only a remnant of them shall return

BP. HALL, VOL. III. Z

338 PARAPHRASE UPON

from their captivity ; and the consumption of the rest shall declare
my righteousness abundantly to the world.

24. " And shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner
of Egypt.""]— As the affliction, which thou hadst from the Egyp
tian bondage, was grievous indeed, but not deadly ; no more shall
this be, which thou shalt suffer from the Assyrian.

26. "And the LORD of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him
according to the slaughter of Miclian at the rock of Oreb : and
as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the man
ner of Eervpt."! — The Assyrian is mv rod to thee; but I will

O«/ i J v v

have a scourge for him that shall plague him ; as the Midianites
were destroyed by Gideon at the rock of Oreb, and as I
plagued the Egyptians whom I overthrew and destroyed in the
Red sea.

27. " And the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anoint
ing."] — The yoke of servitude shall be taken from thy neck, be
cause thou art a people consecrated to me ; for the sake of that
Messiah, mine Anointed, which shall descend from thee.

2&. " He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron ; at Mich-
mash he hath laid up his carriages :"] — Behold, the Assyrian is
in his expedition against thee already : he is come onwards his
way to Aiath, and thence is he passed to Migron ; and hath
made Michmash the storehouse for his provision, munition, and
carriages :

29. " They are gone over the passage : they have taken up
their lodging at Geba ; Ramah is afraid ; Gibeah of Saul is fled."]
— They have gone over the passages of those rivers which might
seem to have hindered their way ; they are passed Jordan itself,
and are come to lodge at Geba ; and now the neighbouring cities,
Ramah and the rest, quake for fear ; the inhabitants of Gibeah
are fled.

30. " Lift up thy voice, 0 daughter of Gallim : cause it to be
heard unto Laish, 0 poor Anathoth."] — Ye cities, that lie near to
the way of this mighty enemy, lift up your voices, and weep for
your imminent desolation, and cause your cries to be heard unto
the farthest parts of the land.

32. " As yet shall he remain at Nob that day : he shall shake
his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of
Jerusalem."] — Ere a day be at an end, he will be at the town of
Nob, hard by Jerusalem ; and then he shakes his hand at the
mount of Sion, and the temple whereon it stands.

ISAIAH X. 24.— XI. 5. 339

33. " Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough
with terror : and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down,
and the haughty shall be humbled."] — But howsoever he do thus
proudly exalt himself, and terribly bluster against Jerusalem, the
Lord of hosts shall take him down, and shall cut him off with
terror : the insolent Assyrian shall be hewn down suddenly, and
the haughty enemy shall be humbled.

34. " And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with
iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one."] — These great
and tall cedars of Lebanon, that thus overtopt God's people, shall
be cut down, and shall fall by the mighty hand of the destroying
angel.

XL i. "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of
Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:"] — At last, in
the fulness of time, for the comfort of God's Church, there shall
come forth a rod out of the seemingly withered stock of Jesse, the
father of David ; and a flourishing branch, even the Messiah, shall
grow out of his appearingly sere and sapless root.

2. " And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit
of wisdom and understanding.11] — He shall receive the spirit be
yond all finite measure ; forasmuch as in him the Godhead shall
dwell bodily, replenishing his human nature with all wisdom and
nnderstanding, &c.

3. " And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of
the LORD : and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, nei
ther reprove after the hearing of his ears."] — And shall enable
his humanity with a quick and piercing understanding, to the
perfect judging and discerning of those that do truly profess to
fear and serve the Lord from false-hearted hypocrites ; and he
shall not judge by the outward appearance, according to the evi
dence of the eye or the ear.

4. " And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked."] — With
the word of his mouth, which is the sceptre of his kingdom, shall
he overrule the earth ; and with the same word, which is made a
savour of death unto death to the wicked, shall he slay the re
bellious.

5. "And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and
faithfulness the girdle of his reins."] — He shall not come in the
gorgeous attire of worldly princes, but shall be clothed in the
glorious robes of righteousness and truth ; which shall be closely

z 2

340 PARAPHRASE UPON

girded about him, as those which can never be separated from his
person and government.

6. " The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf and the young lion and
the fatlino- together ; and a little child shall lead them."] — This

o O

blessed Saviour, when he comes, shall reform and restore the world
to the first peaceable disposition of the creature ; so as the savage
beast shall put off his bloody nature, and live quietly with his fel
lows; and those men which are of a wolvish and lionlike disposi
tion, for fierceness and cruelty, shall be so changed by the power
of his Gospel, that they shall meekly and plausibly converse with
those that are most weak and innocent.

So also ver. 7, 8.

9. " They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain :
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the
waters cover the sea."] — All those that submit themselves to the
power of the Gospel shall live harmlessly ; for they shall be
taught of God to govern themselves accordingly, and all shall
abound in the means of the knowledge of the Lord : so as the
earth shall be no less overspread with the Gospel than the sea is
covered with waters.

i o. " And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall
stand for an ensign of the people ; to it shall the Gentiles seek :
and his rest shall be glorious."] — In that day the Messiah shall
arise from the stock of David; and to him, as to a standard
erected, shall all the nations flock ; and so shall he be advanced,
as that all the Gentiles shall seek unto him, and submit themselves
to his word and power ; and he shall settle his rest among them,
which shall be glorious for himself and happy for them.

j i . " And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall
set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his
people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and
from Pathros, and from Gush, and from Elam, and from Shinar,
and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea."] — Neither
may this seem hard, since the Lord will be pleased in that day to
set his hand to the work ; and as he hath formerly showed his
power in the miraculous deliverances of his people, so will he now
again mightily recover the remainder of them from the Assyrians,
Egyptians, Ethiopians, and other nations, amongst whom they shall
be scattered ; as the Parthians, Modes, Chaldees, Cilicians, and
those countries which are divided bv the sea.

ISAIAH XI. 6.— XIII. 3. 341

13. "The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adver
saries of Judah shall be cut off."] — God's people shall agree well
together ; and shall lay aside all envy and heart-burning, which
they had one towards another, &c.

14. "But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines
toward the west."] — But they shall band together against the
common enemy of the Church ; and with joint forces set upon the
Philistines, &c.

15. " And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the
Egyptian sea ; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand
over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make
men go over dryshod/'] — And the Lord will utterly destroy that
bay of the Egyptian sea, which carries the form of a tongue in the
entering upon the continent ; and with his mighty wind shall, as
he did once for the passage of the Israelites through the Red sea,
so divide Nilus, with all the seven streams thereof, as that men
may go over dryshod.

XII. 3. "Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the
wells of salvation."] — My salvation shall be as a full and ever-
flowing spring; out of which ye shall, with joy of heart, draw up
full vessels continually.

6. " Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion : for great is
the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee."] — Shout for joy, O
ye inhabitants of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel, your merciful
God, shows the greatness of his power, and the abundance of his
grace, in and upon you, in his manifold blessings and deliverances.

XIII. i. " The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz
did see."] — The heavy tidings of that prophecy, wherewith Isaiah
the son of Amoz was sent to and against Babylon.

2. " Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the
voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates
of the nobles."] — I am commanded to proclaim an open war, which
the Lord will raise against Babylon by the hands of the Medes
and Persians: lift ye up therefore a banner upon the highest
mountain, where it may be most conspicuous, that the people
may draw together for this purpose ; and encourage them, both
by voice and gesture, that they may go courageously up to the
stately palaces of the Babylonian nobles.

3. "I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called
my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my
highness."] — I have commanded, saith God, those whom I have

342 PARAPHRASE UPON

set apart for this great work of Babylon's destruction : I have
called my mighty warriors of Media and Persia to be the execu
tioners of my anger ; even them that shall go cheerfully forward,
upon my setting on to this conquest.

4. " The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a
great people."] — This is so surely done, as if ye did already hear
the noise of a multitude in the mountains coming down to this spoil
and slaughter, &c.

5. " They come from a far country, from the end of heaven."]

They shall come, not only from Media and Persia, but, by their

procurement, from far remote nations, &c.

8. " They shall be amazed one at another ; their faces shall be
as flames."] — They shall be amazed at the sight of each other's
misery ; and for anguish and consternation their faces shall be as
red as fire.

10. "For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof
shall not give their light : the sun shall be darkened in his going
forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine."] — God
shall command both the heaven and earth to conspire against his
enemies of Babylon ; from whom, for their great discomfort, he
shall withdraw the light of those heavenly bodies, which they are
wont most curiously to observe, so as both the stars, the sun, the
moon, shall deny their light unto them.

J2. "I will make a man more precious than fine gold ; even a
man than the golden wedge of Ophir."] — I will so give up Baby
lon to the slaughter, that there shall be very few left alive in it ;
and their enemies shall be so inexorable, that they shall rather
care to shed blood than to take the richest ransom.

13. "Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall
remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and
in the day of his fierce anger."] — By wonderful signs in the hea
ven, and by terrible earthquakes, such as if heaven and earth did
remove out of their places, will I testify my fierce wrath against
Babylon in that day when I shall execute my judgments upon it.

17. " Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall
not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it."]
— Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them ; whose drift shall
not so much be their wealth as their blood ; that shall care only
to kill, not to enrich themselves with ransoms.

20. " Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there ; neither shall
the shepherds make their fold there."]— It shall be so utterly de-

ISAIAH XIII. 4.— XIV. 10. 343

solated, that the very Arabians who shift their habitations con
tinually for change of pasturage, shall not so much as pitch a tent
there ; nor the shepherd shall make choice of these plains to make
his fold there.

21. " And their houses shall be full of doleful creatures ; and
owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there."] — Their
houses shall be taken up with those doleful creatures that delight
in solitude : and owls shall dwell there, and evil spirits shall haunt
those habitations, &c.

So also verse 22.

XIV. i . " For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet
choose Israel, and set them in their own land : and the strangers
shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of
Jacob/'] — The Lord will yet, by the renewing of his mercies,
show that he hath a tender respect to the seed of Jacob, and that
Israel is the people whom he hath chosen to himself: and the
Gentiles shall come in and join with God's faithful people, and
shall be one Church with the true Israel.

2. "And the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of
the LORD for servants and handmaids."] — And the Israel of God,
which is the true Church, shall receive them into their family, and
unite them into one holy society with themselves, &c.

4. " That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of
Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased ! the golden
city ceased!"] — Then shalt thou insult upon the proud king of
Babylon, and say, Where is now this great tyrant that so op
pressed us ? what is become of this glorious city of Babylon that
exacted so much tribute from us ?

8. " Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Leba
non, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against
us."] — Yea, the very senseless creatures, the trees of the forest,
triumph in thy ruin, O Babylon ; and say, We were wont to be
cut down to build thy palaces, but now we can stand quietly ; no
feller offers to put an axe unto us.

9. " Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy
coming : it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones
of the earth ;" &c.] — Yea, the very dead shall rise to applaud thy
destruction : hell shall send up her guests to welcome thee with
a scornful gratulation ; even all those great kings and princes
whom thou hast tyrannized over.

i o. " All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also

344 PARAPHRASE UPON

become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?"] — All they
shall scoff and jeer thee ; and say, What I is great Babylon become
as weak as we ? is the pomp thereof brought down like to one
of ours ?

12. "How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the
morning ! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst
weaken the nations!"] — 0 thou proud king of Babylon, which
shinedst in the world like the glorious morning star, how art thou
now fallen from thy state and magnificence ! how art thou, which
hadst wont to tyrannize over many nations, cut down and utterly
destroyed !

13. " For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God : I will sit
also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the
north."] — For thou, in the pride of thy heart, wouldst needs
exalt thyself above God himself ; and saidst within thyself, Earth
is too low for me ; my throne shall be advanced above the stars
of God : I will frustrate the designs of the Almighty ; and, in
spite of him, will conquer the mount of Zion, the seat of his
temple.

So verse 14.

17. " That opened not the house of his prisoners."] — That held
all nations captive ; and would not dismiss his prisoners, that they
might return to their own home.

1 8. " All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory,
every one in his own house."] — Lo, now, how the world is changed !
all other kings, even those petty princes whom thou subduedst,
are in glory and magnificence each one in his own court.

19. "But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable
branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through
with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit ; as a carcass
trodden under feet."] — But thou shalt not be suffered so much
as to enjoy thine own grave, but art cast out as a rotten tree that
is not worthy to be set in the ground, or as a garment of a man
slain by the sword, which is all gashed and soiled with blood, not
worth taking up, or as an abominable carcass which no man dares
to come near for the ill savour it yieldeth.

21 . " Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their-
fathers ; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the
face of the world with cities."] — O ye avengers of blood, prepare
ye an exquisite slaughter, not only for the king of Babylon him-

ISAIAH XIV. 12-32. 345

self, but for his progeny and posterity : see that ye root them
out : let them not live to be great in the world either in possessions
of land or building of cities.

23. "I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools
of water."] — I will turn the low seated Babylon into a standing
pool, and make it a possession for bitterns and for otters, instead
of men, &c.

25. "That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my
mountains tread him under foot :"] — But before this time of the
destruction of Babylon, I will overthrow the proud Assyrian in
the land of Judah, and will do execution upon him in the mountains
of Israel, sending away Sennacherib with a miraculous and shame
ful defeat, &c.

29. "Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him
that smote thee is broken : for out of the serpent's root shall come
forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent."] —
Rejoice not, 0 thou whole land of Palestine, for that the Jews
which formerly subdued thee are now driven out and vanquished ;
for there is yet more mischief towards thee from ' hose whom thou
thinkest to be utterly crushed : if the serpent's egg be broken, as
thou weenest, yet a cockatrice, which is more deadly, shall arise
out of that cracked shell, and thou shalt be more annoyed by this
later brood than thou wert by the former.

30. " And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy
shall lie down in safety : and I will kill thy root with famine, and
he shall slay thy remnant."] — And those miserably distressed
Jews, the heirs of beggary and sorrow, shall be relieved and dwell
quietly ; and for thee, O Palestine, I will kill the remainder of
thee with famine and the sword of the enemy.

31. "Howl, 0 gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art
dissolved : for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none
shall be alone in his appointed times."] — 0 ye defenced cities, and
walled towns of Palestine, howl and lament ; and thou whole coun
try mourn, for thou art utterly wasted : there shall come from the
north armies of Assyrians, and Jews, which shall begin with a
smoke, but end in a fire ; they shall come banded together, and no
man shall be left at home alone in that day of thy intended de
struction.

32. " What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation ?
That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall
trust in it."] — What reason then shall be given to the world,

346 PARAPHRASE UPON

when people shall be inquiring into the cause of this desolation of
Palestine ? Even this : That the Lord hath had a gracious respect
unto Zion, and that he would have his poor despised people to
find a sure refuge there, through his mighty protection, from the
fury of their enemies.

XV. i. "The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of
Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence ; because in the night
Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence ;"] — The heavy
tidings which God sends by his prophet to Moab : Because the
two great cities of Moab, Ar and Kir, are suddenly and unexpect
edly surprised and sacked ;

2. "He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to
weep : Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba : on all their
heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off."] — Therefore
the foolish Moabites are gone up to their high places to weep and
complain to their idol Chemosh : they make moan for their other
cities also, both those in the heart and in the skirts of the land ;
and they testify their mourning by shaving of their heads and
beards.

4. " And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh : their voice shall be
heard even unto Jahaz : therefore the armed soldiers of Moab
shall cry out; his life shall be grievous unto him/'] — Their two
other famous cities of Heshbon and Elealeh shall shriek and howl
so loud that their noise shall be heard to the utmost confines of
the land : even the men of war which should by their courage
cheer up others, shall, in a despair of success, cry and lament,
and their life shall be but a grief and burden to them, for that
they are in a sad expectation of death.

5. "My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee
unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old : for by the mounting up
of Luhith with weeping shall they go it up ; for in the way of
Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction."] — My heart
tells me that Moab shall cry out to his cowardly fugitives which
run away to the utmost borders of Judah, even as a young heifer
of three years old belloweth after her fellows ; for they shall fol
low them over hills and dales from one side of the country unto an
other, and shall raise a woful hubbub after them.

6. " For the waters of Mmrim shall be desolate : for the hay
is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing."] —
And the waters that flow through the plains of Moab and the vale
of Nimra shall be utterly dried up : the grass shall fail, the hay

ISAIAH XV. i.— XVI. 4. 347

shall be parched up, and there shall be no show of aught but
drought and barrenness.

8, " For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab ; the
howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beer-
elim."] — The fearful cries and howlings of the Moabites are uni
versal : no place is free, they fill the whole land and all the ob
scurest corners thereof.

9. " For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood : for I will
bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth of Moab,
and upon the remnant of the land."] — For the river of Dimon,
which runs through Moab, shall, according to the name of it, be
bloody with the slaughter of his people : and yet I have a further
judgment in store beyond this stain of Dimon ; for the man that
escapeth from the sword of the enemy in that valley will I give
up to be a prey to the wild beasts ; the lions shall devour him.

XVI. i. " Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela
to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion."] — Yet,
Moab, if at last thou shalt relent, there may be a possibility of
life and recovery ; which if thou desire to hearken unto, send then
first according to thy old promise and engagement, that tribute
of lambs which thou oughtest to have paid to the king of Judah :
send it humbly unto him, even all of you from the utmost bounds
of Edom to mount Zion, where his court resideth.

2. " For it shall be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the
nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon."] —
Else, be sure ye shall be like a wandering bird, whose nest is
pulled down, disappointed of your habitations ; so as the daughters
of Moab, though near to you in blood, shall be glad to seek their
lodging in foreign parts.

3. " Take counsel, execute judgment ; make thy shadow as
the night in the midst of the noonday ; hide the outcasts ; be
wray not him that wandereth."] — Go to then, bethink thyself of
better courses ; do right to all men : be thou harborous and kind
to thy brethren of Israel : yielding them as cool a shadow in the
midst of the heat of the day as if it were midnight : give shelter
and entertainment to their chaste and distressed exiles, and be
wray not him that in his wandering seeks to thee for succour.

4. " The spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of
the land."] — For God hath put an end to the calamities of his
people ; there shall be no more spoil, no more oppression of their
cruel enemies to waste them.

348 PARAPHRASE UPON

5. " And in mercy shall the throne be established : and he
shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David."] — And in
great mercy to his Church shall the throne of the Messiah be
established, and he shall sit upon it as a most just governor of his
people, even in the place of his type and ancestor David, &c.

6. " But his lies shall not be so."] — But his lying and vain
boasting shall deceive him, neither shall they come to any effect.

7. "Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall
howl : for the foundations of Kir-hareseth shall ye mourn ; surely
they are stricken."] — Therefore one city of Moab shall condole
with another, and all shall howl together for the razing down of
the prime city, Kir-hareseth : for the razing even of the very
foundations thereof shall ye mourn in vain : not one of the inha
bitants shall escape ; surely they shall be all destroyed.

8. " For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sib-
mah : the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal
plants thereof, they are come even unto Jazer," &c.] — Yea, not
only the chief cities, but the whole region shall be laid waste : the
fruitful fields and vineyards of Heshbon and Sibmah, which were
famous for their excellent grapes, shall be spoiled by the lords of
the heathen ; which shall not rest in the vastation of some parts
of the land, but shall run over all even to Jazer, which is in the
utmost confines, &e.

9. " Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of
Sibmah : I will water thee with my tears, 0 Heshbon, and Elealeh ;
for the shouting for thy summer fruits, &c."] — Therefore shall
the Moabite say, I will, with a general lamentation, such as shall
be heard from the uttermost skirts of the land, bewail the deso
lation of the excellent vineyards of Sibmah, &c. ; for the joy and
acclamations that were wont to be at the gathering of thy summer
fruits, and for thy plentiful harvest, is now at an end, and shall be
heard no more.

ii." Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab,
and mine inward parts for Kir-haresh."] — "Wherefore my bowels
shall in their yearning, through the vehemence of my passion,
make a loud noise ; and mine inward parts shall be moved for the
chief city of Moab, to see the woful desolation thereof.

12." And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is
weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to
pray; but he shall not prevail."]— It shall come to pass, that
Moab, finding no relief in the petty idols of his high places, shall

ISAIAH XVI. 5.— XVII. 7. 349

come to his chief sanctuary, to implore the aid of Chemosh, his
god ; but he shall not prevail.

14. " Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the
glory of Moab shall be contemned."] — Within three years, which
shall be as precisely set and observed as the hireling uses to keep
account of the time agreed upon for his service, all the glory of
Moab shall be dashed, &c.

XVII. 2. " The cities of Aroer are forsaken : they shall be for
flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid."] —
The cities of Aroer, in the region of Syria, shall be forsaken and
turned desolate : nothing shall be seen there but cotes for shep
herds, and their flocks, which shall feed in those solitary plains,
without fear.

3. " The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom
from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria : they shall be as the
glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts."] — And
since Israel and Syria will be joining together against Judah, I will
be avenged on them both : Ephraim, which is the prime tribe of
Israel, shall lose his strength ; and Damascus, the prime city of
Syria, shall lose his kingdom ; and so shall all Syria : it shall speed
like to Israel, which it hath enticed to join in this unjust war.

5. "And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the
corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm ; and it shall be as he
that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim."] — And it shall be
as when the harvestman gathereth close within his arm all those
stalks of corn which he can reach, that he may cut them off toge
ther ; so shall the enemy deal with Israel : he shall cut them off
at once ; even as a labourer's sickle cuts the ears of corn in the
fruitful valley of Rephaim, where they stand thickest together.

6. " Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the skaking of
an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost
bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith
the LORD God of Israel."] — Yet, as in a field, after the most
careful harvestman, there will be some gleanings left ; and some
grapes, after the gathering of the vintage, may be hid under the
leaves ; and soma olives left upon the out-boughs after the tree is
most shaken ; so shall it be here with Israel : some few of them
shall yet be reserved after the common destruction.

7. "At that day shall a man look to his Maker."] — And this
correction shall have so prevailed, that now the remaining Israel
ites shall look up to their Maker, &c.

350 PARAPHRASE UPON

9. " In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough,
and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children
of Israel : and there shall be desolation."] — In that day shall the
strong cities of the ten tribes be left unpeopled and waste ; even
as a bough whose olives are shaken off ; whose branch yet shall be
left still, for the sake of those Israelites which I will reserve.

11. ' ' In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in
the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish : but the har
vest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow."]
— Thou mayest bestow thy best husbandry upon thy plants and
upon thy seed, and expect a plentiful increase ; but when it shall
come to the harvest, thy hopes shall be utterly disappointed, and
thou shalt find nothing but cause of sorrow and humiliation.

12. "Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a
noise like the noise of the seas."] — Woe be to that great and nu
merous army of the Assyrians and Ethiopians which come up
against Jerusalem, whose noise' is loud and hideous, like the noise
of the sea, &c.

13. " The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters."]
— The several nations which shall be confederate against Judah

O

shall rush like the gushing of many waters.

14. " And behold at eveningtide trouble ; and before the morn
ing he is not."] — Behold, in the evening there is horror and con
fusion in the host through the slaughter made by the angel of
God ; and in the morning there is not one left of an hundred
fourscore and five thousand men, &c.

XVIII. i . " Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is
beyond the rivers of Ethiopia :"] — Woe to the land of Ethiopia,
and that part especially which is comprehended in Egypt, and
the maritime coast ; whose frequent shipping doth shadow, as it
were, other nations with her sails.

2. "That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of
bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a
nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their begin
ning hitherto;" &c.] — That sendeth ambassadors by sea in vessels
fit for that purpose, artificially framed of bulrushes, to avoid the
danger of that rocky passage; to call together united nations
from remote parts to come up against that miserable and spoiled
people of the Jews, whose land is overrun and overspread with an
inundation of enemies.

3. " All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth,

ISAIAH XVII. 9.— XVIII. 7. 851

see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains ; and
when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye."] — Let all the inhabitants
of the world every where take notice of the Lord's revenge which
he will take of the enemies of his people : when he therefore lifts
up his ensign on high, and bloweth his trumpet to call his troops
to this battle, let all men consider and observe the certain and
terrible success.

4. " For so the LORD said unto me, I will take my rest, and I
will consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs,
and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."] — I will for a
time forbear judgment, and be as a mere looker on, acting nothing ;
but in the mean time I will have an eye to my Church and people,
and will be to them as a kindly heat is to the drooping herbs, or
as a sweet dew in the scorching heat of harvest.

5. " For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect and the sour
grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs
with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches/1]
— Meanwhile, if their enemies prosper for a time, it shall not
always be so ; for when their hopes are come to the height, he
shall defeat them : immediately before the autumn, when the bud
is come to perfection, when the grape is upon the point of ripening,
I will cut off their sprigs and boughs with pruning knives, and
disappoint all their expectation.

6. " They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains,
and to the beasts of the earth : and the fowls shall summer upon
them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them/']
— The carcasses of their enemies shall be cast out as dung ; and
shall be a prey both to the fowls of the mountains and the beasts
of the field ; and lie there rotting, both in the summer and winter,
till they be consumed.

7. "In that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD
of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terri
ble from their beginning hitherto ; a nation meted out and trodden
under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the
name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion."] — In that day,
through the mercy of God remembering the miseries of his people,
the remaining Jews shall offer themselves to him as an holy,
lively, acceptable sacrifice : even that despised and forlorn people
of the Jews, that hath undergone all the despites and oppres
sions of nations, and been overwhelmed with the multitude of
enemies, shall devote themselves to the Lord in mount Zion and
his holy temple.

352 PARAPHRASE UPON

XIX. i. "Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall
come into Egypt : and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his
presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.""]
—Behold, the Lord comes with a wonderful swiftness and unre-
sistible power, to be revenged upon Egypt ; and the idols of the
Egyptians shall be cast down before him, and the hearts of the
Egyptians shall be utterly dismayed.

4. " And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel
lord ; and a fierce king shall rule over them."] — And I will give
over the Egyptians into the hands of cruel tyrants which shall
oppress them, as they have done my people heretofore ; both of
their own and of the Assyrians, &c.

5. "And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall
be wasted and dried up."] — And whereas they trust in the bene
ficial waters of Nilus, which give them both plenty and protection,
behold, their hopes shall deceive them ; for those waters shall be
intercepted and dried up.

6. " And they shall turn the rivers far away ; and the brooks
of defence shall be emptied and dried up : the reeds and flags shall
wither."] — Even their channels shall be quite emptied, and the
waters derived into other streams ; so as the mud thereof shall be
hardened ; and the reeds and flags which grew therein shall be
quite withered.

7. " The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks,
and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away,
and be no more"] — That plant which yieldeth the rich commodity
of paper, which grows along the brooks ; and every other thing
which is set or sown by those otherwise fruitful banks, shall now,
through extremity of drought, be destroyed and lost.

9. "Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave
networks, shall be confounded."] — Moreover, through the failing
of Nilus, all those curious and wealthy trades of them, who work
in fine flax and weave networks, the matter whereof had wont to
be imported by those streams, shall be utterly undone and dis
appointed.

10. "And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all
that make sluices and ponds for fish."] — All they that live upon
the benefit of their fishponds and sluices, preserving in these com
modious stews those fishes which they take and sell for advantage
of gain, shall be now defeated of their trade.

1 1. "Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the
wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish : how say ye unto

ISAIAH XIX. 1-20. 853

Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?"] —
Where now are those wise counsellors and great peers of Egypt,
that made themselves so sure and safe against all events? I do
now, by commision from God, tell them, they are no better than
fools ; yea, than brutish : to what good issue are their fond brags
now come, wherein they suggested unto Pharaoh the glory of his
wisdom and of his princely descent ?

14. " The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst
thereof : and they have caused Egypt to err in every work
thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit."] — The Lord,
in his justice, hath given them up to a spirit of giddiness and per-
verseness ; justly punishing their pride with the seduction of their
leaders, who have caused Egypt to go wrong in all their enter
prises ; even as a man extremely drunk reeleth and staggereth
out of his way.

15. " Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the
head or tail, branch or rush, may do.11] — Nothing shall come to
any good effect which the Egyptians shall undertake, from the
highest to the lowest : all their attempts shall be unprosperous.

16. " In that day shall Egypt be like unto women : and it shall
be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the
LOUD of hosts, which he shaketh over it."] — In that day shall the
Lord daunt the spirits of the Egyptians, so as they shall become
weak and fainthearted like women ; and this shall be caused
through their astonishment and fear of the imminent judgments
of God.

1 8. "In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak
the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts ; one
shall be called, The city of destruction."] — 'Yet, even upon Egypt
itself will God have mercy and compassion ; and shall, of six cities
of theirs, preserve five still for himself; which shall be reclaimed
from their superstition, and conspire in their holy worship and
service with God's people, and swear by no other name but his ;
only one of them shall be called, A city rejected and destroyed.

19. "In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the
midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to
the LORD."] — And the true religion of God shall be established
and flourish, in the midst of the land of Egypt ; and in the utmost
borders thereof shall be monuments of their holy devotion to the
LORD.

20. " And he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and

BP. HALL, VOL. III. A a

354 PARAPHRASE UPON

he shall deliver them."] — He shall send them a temporal deliverer
from their outward oppressions; and at the last a spiritual Sa
viour and Almighty Redeemer from the ghostly bondage of sin
and Satan.

23. " In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to
Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian
into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians."]
— Neither shall this mercy be confined to Egypt alone, but shall
extend itself to other nations, no less averse from God than it :
both Egypt and Assyria shall have free intercourse with each
other, and shall communicate mutually in the same holy pro
fession.

24. " In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with
Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land."] — And in that
day Israel shall come in as a third nation, to join with them both ;
so as Israel, Egypt, and Assyria shall be blessed all together, and
in each other, with an holy conjunction of mind, in one and the
same truth of religion.

XX. i. "In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when
Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,)" &c.] — In the year that
Tartan, the great Assyrian captain, came unto Ashdod, a Philis
tine city, when Sargon, or Sennacherib, (for he is called by both
names.) the king of Assyria, sent him, &c.

2. "Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off
thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and bare
foot."] — Go, and put off that hairy garment which is about thee,
the ordinary habit of a prophet, and put off thy shoe from thy
foot; and he did so, walking disrobed and barefoot.

3. " Barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt
and upon Ethiopia."] — For a sign and token that, three years
after this prophecy, the forces of Egypt and Ethiopia, led by
Tirhakah, shall be utterly discomfited, and they stripped of that
great power whereof they boasted.

5. "And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their
expectation, and of Egypt their glory/']— And my people, the
Jews, shall be ashamed and confounded in themselves, to think
they have been so foolish to put their trust in Ethiopia and
Egypt, so impotent protectors.

6. " And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Be
hold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be deli
vered from the king of Assyria : and how shall we escape ?"] —

ISAIAH XIX. 23.— XXI. 7. 355

And the inhabitants of this country, which I have sequestered for
myself from the rest of the world, shall say, See to what broken
reeds we trusted for our deliverance ! how vainly have we feared
that we could not possibly be safe and escape without them !

XXI. i. "The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds
in the south pass through, so it cometh from the desert, from a
terrible land."] — The heavy tidings sent to Chaldea, and espe
cially to Babylon : As those whirlwinds which arise from the south
are most furious, so shall this be which shall pass over thee,
O Babylon, from the Medes ; who, like a violent tempest, shall
rush upon thee, and turn thee over.

2. " A grievous vision is declared unto me ; the treacherous
dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, 0
Elam : besiege, 0 Media ; all the sighing thereof have I made to
cease."] — It is a grievous vision to thee, 0 Chaldea, which is
showed unto me concerning thee : wicked men do their kind :
the treacherous Syrian dealeth treacherously, and the cruel Baby
lonian spoileth unmercifully, and shall be dealt with thereafter.
Go up, O thou Persian, and besiege Babylon : 0 Media, do thou
join thy forces in this service ; I will give no respect to any of the
sighs of that oppressing nation, but will give them over to a just
destruction.

3. " Therefore are my loins filled with pain : pangs have taken
hold upon me/'] — I am deeply afflicted in myself, to foresee these
grievous judgments, which are coming upon these secure enemies
of God's Church, &c.

5. "Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink :
arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield."] — Proud and secure
Babylon says, Furnish the tables with all delicates : let us feast
ourselves merrily : dispose of our watches, to make sure of a sea
sonable notice and prevention of any enemy : eat, drink ; but, in
the meantime, arise, O ye princes of Media and Persia, and make
your armour and munition ready.

6. " For thus hath the LORD said unto me, Go, set a watchman,
let him declare what he seeth."] — Thus saith the Lord, These
things which I bid thee denounce against Babylon are yet afar
off; Go, therefore, and set a watchman upon an high tower, and let
him declare to thee what he seeth.

7. "And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot
of asses, and a chariot of camels ; and he hearkened diligently
with much heed:"] — And he saw far off, and first discerned a

A a 2

356 PARAPHRASE UPON

0

chariot : then he descried a couple of horsemen and a chariot
drawn by asses, and another drawn by camels ; as a lively repre
sentation of those enemies and those means whereby the Babylo
nian should be overthrown by Cyrus the king of Persia, &c.

8. " And he cried, A lion11 (as it is in the margin) : "My lord,
I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I
am set in my ward whole nights :"] — And he cried with a strong
voice like a lion, My Lord, as thou hast appointed me, so am I
careful to keep my station in this watchtower continually, both
night and day, to observe what it shall please thee to represent
unto me :

9. " And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple
of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is
fallen."] — And behold, while I am speaking, here cometh a chariot,
&c. the interpretation of which vision is withal given to me by the
hands of these enemies, Babylon is sacked and destroyed, &c.

10. "0 my threshing, and the corn of my floor," &c.] — 0 how
the mighty arm of the Lord will thresh Babylon, as the corn is
threshed in the floor : that which, &c.

11. "The burden of Dumah. He called to me out of Seir,
Watchman, what of the night ? Watchman, what of the night ?"]
— The children of Edorn called to me out of mount Seir, as scoff-
ingly desiring to know what I had to say against them, Watch
man, what news canst thou tell us of those calamities which have
been threatened against us ? Men have talked of a night that is
coming upon us ; what sayest thou to it ?

1 2. " The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the
night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye; return, come."] — The
watchman said, Ye please yourselves in the hope of a fair morning,
but know also that there is night coming, which shall bring much
sorrow and confusion with it ; but if ye have a desire of your own
safety, return to your God, inquire after him, and submit your
selves humbly unto him.

13. " The burden upon Arabia, In the forest in Arabia shall
ye lodge, 0 ye travelling companies of Dedanim."] —Ye shall be
glad to hide yourselves in the desolate forests of Arabia, for fear
of Sennacherib, 0 ye travellers of Dedanim.

14. "The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to
him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that
fled."] —The inhabitants of the land of Tema, in desert Arabia,
pitying their chased neighbours, brought water to their thirsty

ISAIAH XXI. 8.— XXII. 6. 357

companies, and bread to relieve their hunger, in that forced and
sudden flight.

1 6. " Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, and
all the glory of Kedar shall fail."] — Within a year, in the strictest
account, even such as the hireling keeps for the stint of his work
and bondage, even within that precise space, shall all the glory of
Arabia fail.

17. "And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty
men of the cl^jldren of Kedar, shall be diminished."] — Their
archers, and those other strong and mighty Aarabians, shall be
cut off.

XXII. i . " The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth
thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops ?"] — The
sad tidings sent to Judea : The region which, though low in site,
yet is advanced and dignified with the manifold visions of God,
and revelations of him and his will ; what is the matter with you,
0 ye men of Jerusalem, that you are run up, for shelter and fear,
to the tops of your houses ?

2. " Thou that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city :
thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle."]
— Thou, 0 Jerusalem, that art so full of people and full of noise,
a populous and jolly city, how is it that thy citizens are so base
that they do not stand it out in fio-ht : neither are dead by the

•/ t/

sword, but with fear rather ?

3. " All thy rulers are fled together, they are bound by the
archers : all that are found in thee are bound together, which
have fled from far.v] — The rulers of Judea fled hither to thee
altogether as to a sure fortress ; and now they are all taken by
the enemy : they are all chained together as captives, which fled
from the remotest parts for safeguard unto thee.

4. " Therefore said I, Look away from me ; I will weep bit
terly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the
daughter of my people."] — I know how h'ttle extremity of sorrow
becomes the face of a prophet ; look not on me therefore while I
weep bitterly ; neither let any man go about to comfort me, for I
am resolved to mourn deeply for the spoiling of Jerusalem.

5. "And of crying to the mountains."] — A day of flying to the
mountains for an escape ; not without bitter lamentation, and fear
of being found.

6. "And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and
horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield."] — The men of Persia

358 PARAPHRASE UPON

bare the quiver, that their archers might second and guard the
chariots and horsemen ; and those of Media addressed their target
for a present defence.

8. " And he discovered the covering of Judah, and thou didst
look in that day to the armour of the house of the forest.11] —
And here one discovered the closely-reserved magazines of Ju-
dea ; and thou, on the other side, wert glad to run for munition
to that common armoury in that house which Solomon built in
the forest of Lebanon : all shall be glad to busting into arms for
their defence.

9. " Ye have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that
they are many : and ye gathered together the waters of the
lower pool."] — Ye were glad to survey diligently the breaches of
the walls of the inner citadel, to make them up, how many so
ever ; and dammed in the waters of the lower pool for the neces
sary use of the besieged.

ii." Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water
of the old pool : but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof,
neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago."] — Ye
have made good provisions both for your water and for your for
tifications of the city ; but in the mean time ye have not looked
up to the hand of the Almighty, who hath made all these crea
tures, and can either curse them or use them to your comfort and
defence.

13. " Let us eat and drink ; for to morrow we shall die."] — It
was the careless and desperate resolution of too many amongst
you ; what do we make spare of these provisions ? Let us feed,
and drink liberally. Our time is but short ; let us spend it mer
rily : sorrow will come too soon ; to morrow we shall die.

15. " Go, get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, which
is over the house, and say,"~\ — Go, get thee to this perfidious
officer, even to Shebna, who, though a foreigner in blood and
false in heart, yet hath. command in the house of Hezekiah, and
say,

1 6. "What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here, that
thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that heweth
him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth an habitation for
himself in a rock ?"] — What dost thou, being a stranger here, go
about to build thee a stately tomb in Jerusalem ; as if thou wert
some great prince, and wouldest leave some worthy monument of
thy undeserving name to all perpetuity of times ?

ISAIAH XXII. 8.— XXIII. 2. 359

1 8. " And there the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame
of thy lord's house."] — Those chariots, which thine ambition had
prepared for thy glory and greatness, shall be the shame and re
proach of Hezekiah amongst foreigners, for that he entertained
so wicked and unworthy an officer.

22. " And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his
shoulder : so he shall open, and none shall shut ; and he shall
shut, and none shall open."] — I will put into his hand, as a faith
ful officer, the whole administration of the court ; and will trust
him with the managing of the weighty affairs of the kingdom
under his sovereign : if he command, none shall forbid ; and if he
forbid, none shall obtain.

23. "And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he
shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house."] — And I will
set him firm and sure in this place of authority, so as he shall no
more be removed than a nail that is driven up to the head ; and
he shall be an honour both to the royal throne which he shall
attend, and to his father's house.

24. " And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his fa
ther's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small
quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of
flagons."] — Upon him shall depend all the glory of his father's
house, both for the present and for the future ; and his govern
ment shall be so just, that all affairs, both great and small, of the
king's household or the commonwealth, shall be devolved upon
his fidelity.

25. "In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that
is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and
fall."] — In that day shall the present steward, Shebna, who
seemed sure enough established in his place, be removed, and
put out of office.

XXIII. i . " The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish ;
for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in : from
the land of Chittim it is revealed to them."] — The heavy tidings
sent to Tyre ; that famous and rich city of Tyre shall be laid
waste ; howl, therefore, and lament, 0 all ye seafaring men which
had wont to make your traffick there ; for now there is no har
bour for you any more : they shall hear of this fearful news from
the Grecians and other western nations, whose help shall be used
by Nebuchadnezzar in this war.

2. "Ye inhabitants of the isle ; thou whom the merchants of

360 PARAPHRASE UPON

Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished."]— Ye inhabitants
of Tyre and the neighbouring isles, which have had so rich tra
ding with the Zidonian merchants, may now sit still at home :
there shall be no more work for you.

3. " And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the
river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations."] — And by
the commodity of the sea on which it stands, the flax that grows
in Sihor, and all other the profits that are brought down by the
waters of Nilus, have been, as it were, a constant revenue to it ;
and it hath been the universal staple of trade for all nations.

4. " Be thou ashamed, 0 Zidon : for the sea hath spoken, even
the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth chil
dren, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins."]
— And thou, the famous port of Zidon near adjoining, be thou
also out of countenance ; for the sea, over which Tyre hath wont
to rule, hath now disclaimed all benefit of trade and intercourse ;
and hath professed a barrenness of all further profits, and a ces
sation of navigation hereafter, whether for the increase of wealth,
or for the multiplying of colonies deduced thence.

5. "As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely
pained at the report of Tyre."] — As these bordering nations were
troubled at the news of Egypt's overthrow, so they shall be
extremely afflicted at the like report concerning Tyre.

6. " Pass ye over to Tarshish ; howl, ye inhabitants of the
isle," &c.] — All ye inhabitants and neighbour merchants, now
turn your trade another way ; pass over to Cilicia, and there fix
your traffick, &c.

7. " Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient
days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn."] — Is this
the glorious and jocund city that was wont so to boast of her anti
quity above all others, as founded by the ancient Phenicians,
beyond the memory of records ? now she shall be pulled low
enough, for her own feet shall carry her afar off into captivity
and exile.

8. " Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning
city, whose merchants are princes," &c.?] — Say then, in whose
power was it, or can it be, to bring this desolation upon the
mighty and rich state of Tyre ; that royal city, whose merchants
are as wealthy as the princes of other countries, &c.

i o. " Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tar
shish : there is no more strength."] — Pass away through thine

ISAIAH XXIII. 3.— XXIV. i. 361

own land into captivity, 0 thou renowned daughter of the sea, as
swiftly as an headlong river through his channel : there is no
more strength in thee to hold out or subsist any longer.

12. "Pass over to Chittim ; there also shalt thou have no
rest."] — Get thee for shelter to Cilicia, or to Greece ; but there
thou shalt have no rest.

13. "Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not,
till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness :
they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof;
and he brought it to ruin.'1] — Behold the Chaldeans and Assy
rians : they shall be thy destroyers ; neither think thou strange
of this, 0 Tyre ; for consider well, the Chaldees were no people
of note till the Assyrians raised them up from a wild unsettled
course of life in the wilderness ; yet now these Chaldees shall be
employed for to overthrow the Assyrians : how much more shall
both of them be able to overthrow thee !

15. " That Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to
the days of one king : after the end of seventy years shall Tyre
sing as an harlot."] — Tyre shall lie waste and remain in bondage,
according to the just number of years of the captivity of my
people, even for the space of seventy years ; according to the
utmost extent of the life and reign of any one king in common
account ; and after that seventy years expired, Tyre shall begin
to draw customers to her by her plausible allurements, even as a
beautiful harlot enticeth her lovers by the voice of her singing.

So verse 16.

17. " She shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication
with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth."] —
She shall return to her wonted trading, and shall exercise her
deceitful and meretricious traffick with all the nations of the
world ; enriching herself by the uttering of those adulterated
commodities which she shall put off to all other kingdoms.

1 8. " And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to
the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchan
dise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat suffi
ciently, and for durable clothing."] — But at last both Tyre itself
and her merchandise and trade shall be sincerely consecrated
unto the Lord : she shall not covetously scrape together and lay
up treasure for the enriching of herself, but shall distribute it
rather, and lay it forth for the benefit and behoof of God's saints.

XXIV. i . " Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and

362 PARAPHRASE UPON

maketh it waste," &c.] — Behold, the Lord will bring great
judgments and fearful desolation upon all the regions round
about, &c.

2. "And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest," &c.]
— All shall fare alike from the. hand of God, for they shall be
swept away at once, as well the people as the priest ; &c.

10. " The city of confusion is broken down : every house is
shut up/"1 &c.] — And as other nations about shall be thus plagued,
so even Jerusalem itself shall be broken down and laid in confused
heaps, &c.

13." There shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the
gleaning grapes when the vintage is done."] — Yet there shall be
reserved a small number, on whom I will have mercy ; as some
few olives that are left upon the tree after the shaking thereof,
and some few grapes left growing after the vintage.

14. "They shah1 cry aloud from the sea."] — They shall sound
forth their thankful acknowledgments of God's mercy, and the
professions of their holy confidence in him, even from remote
countries.

1 6. "From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard
songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my
leanness, woe unto me ! the treacherous dealers have dealt trea
cherously ; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treache
rously."] — Even from the Gentiles in all parts of the world have
we heard songs of rejoicing, and praises given to the righteous
and merciful God. But yet I felt within me a sensible appre
hension of the secret complaints of God's Church ; in the sense
whereof I could not but cry out, Woe is me ! I am even consumed
with sorrow, to see the miscarriage of men ; to see the bosom-
enemies of the Church treacherously conspiring against her.

17. " Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, 0 inha
bitant of the earth."] — 0 ye inhabitants of the earth, there are
unavoidable judgments prepared for you : ye shall be sure not to
escape the hand of God : he will certainly meet with you ; and
if you can eschew one plague, yet ye shall be sure to fall into
another.

So verse 18.

1 8. "For the windows from on high are open, and the founda
tions of the earth do shake."] — For be ye assured that the Lord
will arm heaven and earth against you ; neither shall any place be
able to secure you from his judgments.

ISAIAH XXIV. 2.— XXV. 5. 363

20. " The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall
be removed like a cottage ; and the transgression thereof shall be
heavy upon it ; and it shall fall, and not rise again."] — I will tes
tify my wrath by fearful earthquakes ; whereby the earth shall be
so moved as that it shall totter and reel on all sides, like a drunken
man : and so will I revenge the sins of the inhabitants thereof
upon them, as that they shall be pressed down under the weight
thereof, and not be able to rise any more.

21. " And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall
punish the host of the high ones that are on high, arid the kings
of the earth upon the earth."] — And it shall come to pass in that
day, that the Lord shall not forbear to punish the greatest poten
tates of the earth, as well as the meanest of their subjects : all shall
taste alike of his wrath.

22. "And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are
gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after
many days shall they be visited."] — They shall be all shut up in
one common destruction reserved for the just revenge of God ;
but yet, after the patient enduring of many calamities, shall God,
in his great mercy, condescend to have compassion on the rem
nant of them.

23. " Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed,
when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusa
lem, and before his ancients gloriously."] — Then the Lord shall
be pleased to erect such a glorious government in mount Zion
and in Jerusalem, as that it shall put down the glory and bright
ness of the sun and moon in the heavens ; it shall outshine those
bright and lightsome planets, when the Messiah shall reign with
power and majesty in his Church, before his holy and eminent
ministers.

XXV. 2. "For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a, defenced
city a ruin : a palace of strangers to be no city ; it shall never be
built."] — O God, this is thy just and mighty work : thou canst
and dost demolish great and strong cities at pleasure : thou hast
made goodly palaces to be the lodgings of strangers ; and those
piles again hast thou ruined, never to be repaired.

4. " When the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against
the wall."] — Thou art a sure refuge for the poor oppressed, when
the blast of fierce and terrible tyrants beats upon them furiously
as a storm beats against a wall.

5. " Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in

364 PARAPHRASE UPON

a dry place ; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud : the
branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low."] — Thou shalt
abate the rage of violent enemies : if their fury be as some
scorchin" heat in a dry soil, thy mercy shall be as the shadow of
a comfortable cloud to refresh them ; so as those that made ac
count to triumph and tyrannize over thy Church shall be con
founded.

6. " And in this mountain shall the LOED of hosts make unto
all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat
things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined."] — And
in this mountain, the figure of the Church, shall the Lord of hosts
make a gracious and blessed feast to both Jews and Gentiles, in
which he shall feed them with all spiritual delicates, whereby they
shall be nourished to everlasting life.

7. " And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the cover
ing cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all na
tions."] — And he will, by that Gospel which shall go forth from
his mountain of Zion, remove all that veil of ignorance which is
cast over the faces of all people ; so as they shall clearly see the
great and wonderful mysteries of salvation.

8. " He will swallow up death in victory ; and the Lord GOD
will wipe away tears from off all faces ; and the rebuke of his
people shall he take away from off all the earth : for the LORD
hath spoken ?'£."] — And the life that he will give to his chosen
shall be a glorious and perpetual one ; such a one as shall triumph
over death and alteration ; in the issue whereof all causes of
mourning and all pretences of reproach, which are wont to be cast
upon God's people, shall be utterly and fully removed.

10. " For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest,
and Moab shall bo trodden down under him, even as straw is
trodden down for the dunghill."] — For God shall settle his abode
in his Church for ever ; and shall tread down all the most mali
cious enemies thereof, even as straw is trodden in the dunghill to
make compost for the earth.

ii." And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them,
as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim."] — And
he shall stretch forth his hand against them for their destruction
to enwrap them in his judgments, even as, &c.

12. "And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he
bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust."]
— And the strong fortress of that high fort of thine, 0 Moab,

ISAIAH XXV. 6.— XXVI. 13. 365

wherein thou didst so much pride thyself, as impregnable, shall
he bring down and lay level with the dust.

XXVI. i . "In that day shall this song be sung in the land of
Judah ; We have a strong city ; salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks."] — In the day of the return from captivity
shall my people sing in the land of Judah, where they are re
planted, this song ; We have now a strong city : Jerusalem is
abundantly fortified : the protection and safeguard of the Lord
shall be and are the walls and bulwarks thereof.

2. " Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keep-
eth the truth may enter in."] — Jerusalem hath been lewdly in
habited ; but now, after the gates thereof have been so long
broken down and are reedified, they shall be set open to receive
righteous, inoffensive, and conscionable inhabitants.

3. " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed
on thee."~\ — 0 God, thou wilt continue true peace and happiness
to that man whose heart is fastened upon thee, &c.

9. " With my soul have I desired thee in the night ; yea, with
my spirit within me will I seek thee early."] — There is no time
that I have held unseasonable to think of thee, and to long for
thee : even in the night season, when others sleep, hath my soul
been taken up with thee, £c.

10. " Let favour be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learii
righteousness : in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly."]
— Howsoever it pleaseth the longsuffering and merciful God to
show favour to the wicked, in forbearing them, in provoking them
with benefits, yet will they not be reclaimed and amended ; but in
the holiest place, and notwithstanding the most powerful means,
will they practise lewdness, &c.

u. "Yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them."] — Yea,
that fire of thy wrath which thou reservest for thine enemies shall
devour them.

12. " LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us : for thou also hast
wrought all our works in us."] — Lord, thou wilt work out our
peace and felicity, and wilt accordingly continue it to us ; for thou
also hast done great things for us, and hast brought about all our
affairs.

13. "0 LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had do
minion over us : but by thee only, will we make mention of thy
name."] — O Lord, we, who had not the grace to submit ourselves

366 PARAPHRASE UPON

wholly to thy governance, have been justly given over to the
tyranny of wicked rulers, who have exacted sinful obedience from
us ; but we will stick close unto thee alone, and through thy gra
cious aid will hold firm to thy truth, and yield to no other religion
but that which thou hast prescribed us.

14. "They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased,
they shall not rise : therefore hast thou visited and destroyed
them."] — They, even our enemies, are dead without hope of re
viving again : so are they brought down by thy hand, that they
shall never be restored, &c.

18. "We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth ; nei
ther have the inhabitants of the world fallen."] — Alas ! it was not
in our power to work any deliverance for ourselves upon earth,
neither was it in our power to defeat the force of our enemies and
to discomfit them.

19. "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body
shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust : for thy
dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the
dead."] — But it was thou, 0 Lord, that hast wrought it for us:
thou then in mercy saidst, Be of good comfort; those whom thou
gavest up for dead men shall yet be revived ; yea, those that sleep
in the dust yet shall one day arise and live : with this body of mine,
which I shall ere long lay down, shall they arise from their graves.
Awake therefore and rejoice, 0 ye my faithful ones, who are now
resolved to the very dust of the earth, for ye shall be happily re
stored : as ye see the herbs which in winter lay as dead, by the
sweet dews of the spring are revived, so shall it be with you; ye
shall then spring up gloriously, the earth cannot hold you from
your happy resurrection.

20. " Hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the in
dignation be overpast."] — Betake thyself to a sure confidence in
mine assured mercy and protection, and retire thyself a little till
I have executed mine indignation upon thine enemies.

21. " For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish
the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity :"] — For the Lord
from heaven, his dwellingplace, manifesteth his power and justice
in executing judgments upon the inhabitants of the earth.

XXVII. i . "In that day the LORD with his sore and great and
strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent," &c.] —
In that day, the Lord, by his mighty power, shall execute his due

ISAIAH XXVI. 14.— XXVII. 9.

vengeance upon Satan, that old and subtle serpent, and all his
complices, the kings of Egypt, and those other malignant enemies
of his Church.

2. "In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine."] —
In that day sing ye unto her, My Church is as a vineyard of the
most rich and precious wine.

4. "Fury is not in me : who would set the briars and thorns
against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn
them together."] — Howsoever I am provoked, yet I am patient,
and give not way to a just fury : O that I had to do rather with
thorns and briars than with my vineyard : I would soon make an
end with them and burn them at once.

5. Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make
peace with me; and he shall make peace with me."] — But, for
mine own Israel, if, as he doth, he know my omnipotence, and
how easily I can revenge myself, and thereupon be desirous to
humble himself, and make peace with me, let him make peace with
me ; I am ready to accept it.

6. " He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root :
Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with
fruit."] — And though the Lord might justly pull up the house of
Jacob by the roots, that it might never sprout again, yet he, re
membering his mercy, shall only so lop the posterity of Israel
that they shall blossom and bud forth again, and fill the world
with their increase.

7. " Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him ?
or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by
him ?"] — Hath not God put a difference betwixt his correcting of
them and his punishing their enemies ? or hath he destroyed them
in the same manner that he hath destroyed those whom he intends
utterly to root out ?

8. " In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with
it : he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind."] —
When this house of Jacob then shooteth forth, thou wilt not deal
in rigour with it : if it bear not as it should, thou wilt not cut it
up by the roots : and if thy cold and pinching wind blow upon this
herb so that it withers the leaf, yet thou wilt so call in those bitter
blasts that they shall not utterly nip that plant of thine and be
reave it of life.

9. "By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged;
and this is all the fruit to take away his sin ; when he maketh all

868 PARAPHRASE UPON

the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder,
the groves and images shall not stand up."] — It is only God's in
tention, that by these afflictions the iniquity of his people may be
purged away : this is all the fruit he expects of his fatherly
chastisements, to take away their sins ; and, namely, their idola
try ; which they shall so detest, that they shall make all the stones
of their idolatrous altars as chalkstones beaten to powder ; and
shall cut down and deface the groves and images which had for
merly deluded and bewitched them.

jo. " Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation
forsaken, and left like a wilderness : there shall the calf feed,
and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof."]
— Yet, though God will at last show his mercy for all this, in the
mean time Jerusalem shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken
and left like a wilderness ; the beasts shall feed and lodge there,
as in a waste ground ; and the grass and bushes shall grow so rank
there, that the beasts shall only crop the tops thereof.

11. "When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be
broken off: the women come, and set them on fire : for it is a
people of no understanding f'J — And when the boughs so browsed
on shall wither, they shall be broken down ; the very women shall
burn them ; this must be done ; for it is an ignorant and disobedient
people; so as for the time God will be very severe against them, &c.

12. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD
shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of
Egypt, and ye shall be gatherd one by one, 0 ye children of Is
rael."] — And it shall come to pass in that day, that since the
house of Jacob is now as a little corn left in a chaff heap, the Lord
in his threshingfloor shall beat off all the dross from that grain
of his, and shall call them home both from the channel of Eu
phrates and from the streams of Nilus, out of Assyria and Egypt ;
and ye shall be gathered, though not all at once, yet one by one,
0 ye children of Israel.

So verse 13.

XXVIII. i. "Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of
Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on
the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine !"]
— Woe to the ten tribes of Israel, which are both puffed up with
pride and grown to a shameful excess of surfeiting and drunken
ness ; whose garlands upon their heads, withering in the banquets
while they are worn, are a just resemblance of their fading glory

ISAIAH XXVII. 10.— XXVIII. 9. 3C9

and beauty, who are the intemperate lords of those rich and
plentiful valleys of Israel !

2. " Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, ichicJi as
a tempest of hail."] — Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong
Assyrian in store, which shall come upon them like a tempest of
hail, &c.

3. "The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be
trodden under feet:"1'] — Those proud garlands of the drunken
Israelites shall be cast to the ground, and trampled under feet :

4. " And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat
valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the
summer ;"] — The rich crop which crowneth the fat and fertile
valleys of Israel shall be suddenly destroyed ; yea, shall be snatched
up before it can have leisure to ripen, &c.

5. " In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory,
and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people.'"] —
But as for the tribe of Judah, in that day shall the Lord of hosts
be as a crown of glory to it, and as a flourishing and beautiful gar
land to this residue of his people :

6. "And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judg
ment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate."]
— He shall give true judgment and discerning to the judge, and
true valour and courage to the soldier that beats back the enemy,
and assails him in his own gate,

7. " But they also have erred through wine, and through strong
drink are out of the way ; the priest and the prophet have erred
through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are
out of the way through strong drink ; they err in vision, they
stumble in judgment."] — But yet even they also, for a great part
of them, have given themselves unto drunkenness, and have been
miscarried through wine; not the baser sort only, but even the
priest and the prophet, which should have been examples of holi
ness and sobriety, &c. So as they have failed, not only in their
other carriages and actions, but in those very visions which they
have received from God, and in those sentences of judgment which
they should have given from God.

9. "Whom shall he teach knowledge ? and whom shall he make
to understand doctrine ? them that are weaned from the milk, and
drawn from the breasts."] — To what purpose do we cast away in
struction upon an incorrigible people? It is all one, as if God

BP. HALL, VOL. III. B b

370 PARAPHRASE UPOS

should direct his precepts and counsels to a child new weaned
from the breast ; so uncapable are they of wholesome doctrine.

10. " For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept ;
line upon line, line upon line ; here a little, and there a little :"] —
To them, as unto new weaned children, there must be both leisure
and assiduity in teaching, one precept upon another, one rule after
another : first they must be taught to know their letters, then to
spell them : by little at once must they be taught all that is put
into them.

ii." For with stammering lips and another tongue will he
speak to this people."] — So is God forced to deal with this people :
he is fain to frame himself to speak unto them as unto children,
in a stammering and imperfect language, such as they can be able
to pronounce.

1 2. " To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may
cause the weary to rest ; and this is the refreshing : yet they
would not hear."] — For in his own language they would not hear
him ; when God said, Lo where you may find true rest, and
peace to your own hearts, and ability to comfort others : yet they
would not understand him.

13. "But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon
precept, precept upon precept ; line upon line, line upon line ;
here a little, and there a little ; that they might go, and fall back
ward, and be broken, and snared, and taken."] — But since the
word of the Lord, which was delivered to them, one precept upon
another, one rule after another, by a little at once with all as
siduity and leisure, prevailed not with them to their instruction,
it shall be of force to obdure them, and an occasion of their fall
and further judgment.

15. " Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with
death, and with hell are we at agreement ; when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us : for we
have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid our
selves :"] — Because ye have vainly promised safety and impunity
to yourselves, notwithstanding all the judgments threatened
against your sins ; and have taken the more liberty to your lewd-
ness hereupon, as if ye were at a fee with death and hell, and had
said, When the fierce judgments of God shall come upon others,
we shall escape well enough, for the very lies we have made shall
secure us, and our falsehood shall hide us from vengeance :

ISAIAH XXVIII. 10-20. 371

1 6. " Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion
for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a
sure foundation : he that believeth shall not make haste."] —
Therefore, thus saith the Lord, What I have said, I will perform ;
and, behold, for this purpose I have appointed my Son, the true
Messiah, to be the foundation ; to be the sure and precious corner
stone of the everlasting fabric of my Church, in whom all my pro
mises and judgments shall be fulfilled : he that believes shall rest
himself contented with this all-sufficient means of his comfort and
salvation ; and shall not either hasten to look out for other helps,
nor be ashamed of trusting to this.

17. "Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to
the plummet : and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies.""]
— And upon this foundation, and this corner stone, will I raise
the structure of my Church ; which shall be built up in judgment
and righteousness, with wisdom and integrity: as for those wicked
hypocrites that lurk under the false name and pretence thereof,
the just judgments of God shall sweep them away, &c.

1 8. "And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and
your agreement with hell shall not stand ; when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it."]
— And as for that false security wherewith ye fond hypocrites
pleased yourselves, as vainly boasting of a covenant made betwixt
you and death and hell, so as these judgments should not either
come near, or not hurt you, ye shall find that it shall not hold ;
but that contrarily, when the vengeance of God shall seize upon
you, ye shall be utterly overwhelmed with it.

19. "From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for
morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night : and
it shall be a vexation only to understand the report/'] — After the
time that the judgment is once begun, it shall continue without
intermission, morning and evening, night and day ; and it shall
be no small part of affliction but to hear and understand the re
port of those calamities.

20. " For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch him
self on it : and the covering narrower than that he can wrap
himself in it."] — These wicked ones shall have small ease during
the continuance of their lewdness ; they shall be as a man that
lies upon a bed too short and strait for him ; or that in a cold
night is allowed a narrow coverlid only, that will not reach to

B b 2

372 PARAPHRASE UPON

•wrap him over : so deficient and unsatisfying shall be all the com
forts of the wicked.

21. " For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall
be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his
strange work ; and bring to pass his act, his strange act."] — For
the Lord will rise up and show his power against these wicked
men, as he did against the Philistines in Baal Perazim ; as he did
against the Amorites in the valley of Gibeon ; that he may glo
rify himself by doing some strange and marvellous execution
upon them.

22. "Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be
made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a con
sumption, even determined upon the whole earth."] — Do not
therefore mock at these fearful denunciations of God's wrath, lest
your stubborn struggling against the just proceedings of God
entangle you so much more, and make your bands more close and
pinching ; for, certainly, God hath revealed to me his certain de
termination to bring a fearful vastation upon the whole earth,
which hath so grievously corrupted her ways.

24. "Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open
and break the clods of his ground?"] — Do ye not know that God
hath his seasons and opportunities for all his proceedings with
men ? He is not always taken up with one act. Doth the plow
man spend his time altogether in plowing the ground to prepare
it for seed? doth he ever labour in breaking the clods?

25. " When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not
cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the
principal wheat?"] — Hath he not other work to do after this?
When he hath laid the earth smooth and level, doth he not cast
the several seeds and grains into the bosom of the earth, in their
meet seasons, &c.

27. " For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instru
ment, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin ; but
the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a
rod."] — When he hath done that, and hath brought these several
kinds of grain into the barn, he doth not thresh them out all after
one fashion ; for the fitches are not beaten out with the ordinary
instrument of threshing, nor is the cummin crushed out with the
cartwheel ; but lesser force will shake out these seeds, even a staff
or a rod.

ISAIAH XXVIII. 21.— XXIX. 5. 373

28. " Bread corn is bruised ; because he will not ever be
threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it
with his horsemen."] — But that corn, that is for bread, is bruised
out with more force by the strength of the flail or wheel ; because
he will not ever be working upon it to fetch it out of the husks
wherein it lies, by those violent means which are used to this
purpose.

29. " This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is
wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working."] — Since the
Lord of hosts hath given this wit and understanding to plain men,
for the managing of their affairs, in due times and fit ways ; how
much more shall He, who is infinite in wisdom, contrive his own
works, both of mercy and judgment, with men !

XXIX. i. " Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David
dwelt ! add ye year to year ; let them kill sacrifices."] — Woe to
the temple of Jerusalem, and thee, 0 altar ; yea, to that whole
city of David ! let the destruction be a little deferred from one
year to another ; and in the mean time do ye fearlessly kill and
offer your sacrifices, as if ye expected no danger.

•2. " Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness
and sorrow : and ifc shall be unto me as Ariel.""] — Yet in my ap
pointed time I will distress the altar and temple ; and there shall
be heaviness and sorrow ; and the whole city shall be to me as an
altar imbrued with blood.

4. " And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of
the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy
voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the
ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust."] — And
thou shalt speak hollowly and faintly, out of the low estate of
humiliation into which thou shalt be cast : thou, that hadst wont to
speak big and loftily, now, so shall thy voice be changed, that it
shall sound weakly and hollowly, as one that hath a familiar, and
speaks inwardly ; or as if it came like some soft whispering sound
out of the crannies of the earth.

5. " Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small
dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that
passeth away : yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly."] — More
over, those hired forces of strangers, to which thou trustest, shall
be dispersed, as small dust with the wind : and those powerful
and fierce warriors, whereof thou boastest, shall be as chaff blown
away in an instant, suddenly.

374 PARAPHRASE UPON

6. " Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder
and with earthquake.'']— For God himself, who is the Lord of
hosts,, shall take upon him the execution of these judgments upon
thee, and shall testify his displeasure by thunders and earth
quakes, &c.

7. "And the multitude of all the nations that fight against
Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that
distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision."] — And the
multitude of these nations that fight against the altar, temple,
city of Jerusalem, and that distress her, shall come upon her in
respect of her deep security, as some fearful dream upon a sleep
ing man.

8. " It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and,
behold, he eateth ; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty : or as
when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinkcth ; but he
awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite : so
shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount
Zion."] — And whereas the Jews vainly pleased themselves with a
false hope of deliverance from their enemies, and raising of their
siege, they shall be no less disappointed than an hungry man
that dreams of meat, and seems to himself to eat, but when he
awakes he finds that his stomach is still empty, &c. ; so shall it
be with the conceit of defeating the multitude of nations that fight
against mount Zion.

9. Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they
are drunken, but not with wine ; they stagger, but not with
strong drink."] — Fix yourselves upon the thoughts of these judg
ments, and wonder ; yea, cry out, cry aloud in the sense of this
wrath : but, alas ! why do I thus speak unto them ? they are
grown senseless and stupid : they are drunken, not so much with
wine, as with their false security and giddy imaginations, &c.

10. "For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of
deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes : the prophets and your
rulers, the seers hath he covered."] — For the Lord in his justice,
for a punishment of your idolatries and excess, hath given you up
to a secure insensibleness ; shutting up the eyes of your mind,
that you should not see your fearful condition ; and that, not of
the meaner sort only, but of your very prophets and rulers, who
should be the common seers for the rest.

13. "And their fear toward me is taught by the precept of
men."] — Their religion and devotion is such, not as God hath

ISAIAH XXIX. 6-24. 375

prescribed unto them, but such as they have received from the
unwarranted precepts of superstitious men.

14. "For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the
understanding of their prudent men shall be hid."] — Their wise
men and their learned teachers shall be besotted, so as they shall
not be able cither to see the truth or to deliver it unto others.

15- "Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from
the LORD."] — Woe to those hypocritical contemners of God, which
think themselves so cunning that they can elude either the know
ledge or proceedings of God, &c.

16. "Surely your turning of things upside down shall be
esteemed as the potter's clay : for shall the work say of him that
made it, He made me not?"] — Surely these plots and devices
that you have for the turning of things upside down, and work
ing them to your own purposes, are no less in my hand to over
rule, than the clay is in the hand of the potter : is it for you to
take upon you the contriving of the events of things ? is not this
work proper only to me ? shall the work say of him that made it,
He made me not ? &c.

ij. "Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be
turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed
as a forest?"] — However your secure hearts may suggest to you,
it shall be very shortly that I will make these strange alterations
in the world : woody forests shall be turned into fruitful and
plain fields ; and those fields which were lately fruitful shall be
come a wild desert forest.

1 8. "And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the
book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out
of darkness."1] — But, notwithstanding these judgments, I will be
gracious to mine own remnant ; and will open their ears, that
they may hear, and enlighten their eyes, that they may see the
things belonging to their peace.

21." That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a
snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just
for a thing of nought."] — Those cruel men, that are ready to
take the utmost advantage against a man for but a word speak
ing ; and lay twigs and snares to catch the prophet which openly
reproves sin ; and disgrace the upright and conscionable cause
lessly.

24. " They also that erred in spirit shall come to understand
ing, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine."]- They that

376 PARAPHRASE UPON

before carelessly mocked at the prediction of these denounced evils
shall now come to understand the truth of them.

XXX. i. "Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD,
that take counsel, but not of me ; and that cover with a covering,
but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin :"] — Woe to
these rebellious Jews, saith the Lord, that will be consulting with
flesh and blood in their affairs ; and hiding their plots, as if they
could keep them from mine eyes ; and seeking other protections
than my Spirit hath suggested unto them ; they do herein but
add one sin to another.

2. " That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at
my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pha
raoh/'] — That, without ever asking counsel of me, go to crave
aid and succour of the Egyptians, and make account to strengthen
themselves with the forces of Pharaoh, &c.

4. " For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came
to Hanes."] — For no mean men, but the very princes of Judah
were sent as ambassadors to the farthest parts of Egypt to treat
with them upon this business.

5. "They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit
them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a re
proach."] — But the end of that ambassage is but shame and dis
appointment ; for it will appear, that those Egyptians shall not
be able to help them, yea, that their assistance shall turn to a
reproach and disadvantage unto them.

6. The burden of the beasts of the south : into the land of
trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion,
the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches
upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the
bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them"} — The
sad tidings that are sent to the men of Judah, under the name of
those beasts which shall be sent by them with presents into
Egypt ; even into Egypt, which hath been of old a land of trouble
and anguish to Israel ; from whence ravenous and venomous
beasts have wont too frequently to annoy and endanger all pas
sengers ; yet thither will the men of Judah needs carry their rich
gifts, upon the backs of asses and the bunches of camels, to fee a
people that cannot, that shall not avail them.

7. "For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose :
therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit
still."] — The Egyptians1 help shall be utterly in vain ; and there-

ISAIAH XXX. 1-21. 377

fore have I earnestly warned and admonished the people of Ju-
dah, that their best strength had been in sitting still, and trust
ing to their God, without the employment of these untrusty as
sistants.

10. "Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth
things, prophesy deceits."] — Prophesy to us those news that may
please us ; and tell us plausible tidings, how false and deceitful
soever.

n. " Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."]
— Let not the Holy One of Israel trouble us any more with these
harsh and unwelcome prophecies.

13. " Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready
to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking corueth sud
denly at an instant.""] — Your state shall be, for this iniquity of
yours, like to the case of a riven wall, whereof one part is ready
to fall from the other ; which buncheth out in the rupture thereof,
as continually threatening a certain ruin that shall come suddenly
upon it, and in the fall a breaking in pieces.

14. "And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters'
vessel that is broken in pieces.1"] — Thus are ye, and thus shall ye
be : yea, he shall yet break you into smaller sherds ; even like to
the sherds of a broken pitcher, &c.

15. " For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel ; In
returning and rest shall ye be saved ; in quietness and in confi
dence shall be your strength : and ye would not."] — Thus saith
the Lord ; Did not I tell you that your safest and surest way was
to call back your messengers from Egypt, and to rest quietly and
confidently upon the assured protection of your God ? yet ye would
not do so ; but would needs follow your own projects.

16. " But ye said, No ; for we will flee upon horses ; therefore
shall ye flee."] — No, said ye; we will send speedy messengers to
our neighbour princes, and will trust to their aid ; therefore shall
ye make as much haste to flee before your enemies, &c.

18. " For the LORD is a God of judgment.1'1] — For the Lord is
a God, full of merciful moderation in the proceedings of his judg
ments, &c.

20. " Thine eyes shall see thy teachers."] — Thou shalt enjoy
the presence of thy priests and prophets :

21. " And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying,
This is the way, walk ye in it."] — And God shall bless thee with
pure and wholesome doctrine ; directing thee in the way of truth

378 PARAPHRASE UPON

and holiness ; saying to tbee, upon all occasions of thy doubts or
temptations, This is the way, walk in it, &c.

22. "Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of
silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold/'] — Thou
shalt then, in an holy indignation conceived against thy former
idolatry, defile and deface all the ornaments and appurtenances of
thy late images of silver and gold, &c.

23. "Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt
sow the ground withal."] — Upon which act of detestation of that
idolatry, God shall bless thee with a sensible benediction : he shall
give sweet and seasonable rain to that seed thou hast sown, &c.

24. " Shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed
with the shovel and with the fan."] — Thy very cattle shall be full
fed, even with well fanned and pure grain, &c.

25. " And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon
every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the
great slaughter, when the towers fall."] — Even upon the dry and
barren hills which are wont to be parched with a droughty heat
shall springs of living waters break forth, which shall flow forth
into clear and plentiful rivers : so will God have this land of his
to be richly refreshed, even then, when the towers of their ene
mies shall be ruined and demolished.

26. "Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of
the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light
of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of
his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound."] — And so
glorious shall that restitution of the Church be, as that the estate
thereof shall be seven times more bright and beautiful than it was
before ; and whereas, formerly, God gave illuminations to men in
a weak imperfect degree, like to the light of the moon, now he
shall give them clear and perfect, like the sun ; and if any were
clearly enlightened before, now they shall be raised to an height
of knowledge sevenfold more : and this shall be in the days of
that blessed Gospel of peace, wherein God will bind up and heal
the wounds of his afflicted ones.

27. "Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning
ivith his anger."]— In the mean time, behold the power of the
Lord shall manifest itself in grievous judgments upon the Assy
rians, and those other banded enemies of his church ; so as they
shall see and feel him coming against them in a terrible manner
burning with anger, &c.

ISAIAH XXX. 22-33. 379

28. "To sift the nations with the sieve of vanity : and there
shall be a bridle in tlie jaws of the people, causing them to err."]
— To sift the nations with that sieve which shall descry their
vanity, and cause their utter dispersion ; and that bridle of cor
rection, which is wont in the mouth of tractable creatures to guide
them and keep them in order, shall, in his judgment upon these
stubborn enemies, be an occasion of their erring out of the way.

29. " As when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain
of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel."] — As when a man
goes with holy triumph and melodious exultation up to the temple
of God in an holy solemnity.

30. " And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard,
and shall shew the lighting down of his arm.''] — And the Lord
shall let the world see that this revenge upon the Assyrians is his
own work; which he shall declare, both by his fearful thunders
out of heaven, as also by that dreadful execution which his power
ful arm shall perform amongst them, &c.

31. " Which smote with a rod."] — Which was a cruel scourge
unto other nations.

32. " And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass,
which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and
harps : and in battles of shaking will he fight with it."] — So shall
the Lord smite him again, and smite him soundly and deep, so as
the prints of his staff shall be seen upon him ; and wheresoever
the Lord shall lay this heavy hand upon him, the judgment shall
be entertained with the joy and acclamation of all his oppressed
neighbours as a benefit to themselves ; and in all his terrifying
battles, will the Lord, with his staff of vengeance, fight against
him.

33. " For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is
prepared ; he hath made it deep and large : the pile thereof is
fire and much wood ; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of
brimstone, doth kindle it."] — For God, from the foundations of
the world, hath ordained a place and state of torment for his
wicked and reprobate enemies ; yea, for the proud king of Assy
ria, and all those cruel tyrants which do here oppress his Church,
hath God prepared a woful and inconceivably dreadful damnation
in hell fire ; which is poorly represented in that hideous valley of
Benhinnom, wherein, with much shrieking and horror, the bodies
of men are consumed in the fire ; but, alas ! what is that flame to
this unquenchable one, which is kindled by the breath of the

5380 PARAPHRASE UPON

Lord, as with streams of brimstone ; and therefore never can go
out, never can be abated ?

XXXI. 2. " Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will
not call back his words."] — Yet they shall find that, though they
vainly hoped to hide their counsels from the Lord, they shall have
to do with a God wiser than themselves ; who will resolutely bring
evil upon them, and not retract it, &c.

4. " So shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount
Zion, and for the hill thereof."] — The Lord will no more forbear
to fight for Zion against the Assyrian, than a lion will forbear his
prey for the voice of a shepherd.

5. "As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusa
lem."] — Yea, as we see some fowls, in a care to preserve their
young, fly about the head of him that is climbing up to scale their
nest, so careful is the Lord to defend his Jerusalem, &c.

8. "Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a
mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour
him."] — The Assyrian shall fall by the sword, not of a mighty
man, but of a mighty angel ; and the sword, not of a mean man,
but of a spiritual executioner, shall devour him, &c.

y. "And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his
princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the LORD, whose fire
is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem."] — And Sennacherib
shall pass over to Nineveh his strong hold for fear, and with
shame ; and his princes and captains shall be afraid to gather
any more under his ensign, saith God, who, dwelling in his
temple at Jerusalem, sends forth from thence his just vengeance
upon his enemies.

XXXII. i. "Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and
princes shall rule in judgment."] — Behold the Messiah, the true
king of his Church, shall reign in righteousness ; and those who
shall have the administration thereof under him shall rule in due
equity and moderation.

2. " And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and
a covert from the tempest ; as rivers of water in a dry place, as
the shadow of a great rock in a weary land."] — And that man,
God and man, shall be a sure refuge to his elect in all their dis
tresses and calamities ; and shall be a gracious refreshing to them,
even as a clear river in a dry wilderness is to the thirsty traveller,
or as the shadow of a great rock in a hot scorching season and
climate is to the weary passenger.

ISAIAH XXXI. z.— XXXIII. i. 381

5. " The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the
churl said to be bountiful."] — There shall be so right a discerning
of all things, that virtues shall not pass for vices, nor vices be mis
taken for virtues ; but men shall be esteemed as they are.

9. " Rise up, ye women that are at ease ; hear my voice, ye
careless daughters ; give ear unto my speech.'1] — Rise up, ye nice
and dainty dames of Judah and Jerusalem, and give ear to this
speech of mine, 0 ye careless women, who have given yourselves
hitherto only to ease and delicacy.

i o. " For the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come."]
God will hold you short of those means of your riot ; for the vint
age shall fail, the harvest shall disappoint you.

12. "They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields,
for the fruitful vine."] — They shall lament for those plentiful
means of sustenance, for the corn, and for the vines ; the fruit of
both which shall come short of their hopes.

15. "Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the
wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for
a forest."] — Until the spirit of renovation be poured upon us
from God ; until it please him to breathe comfortably upon us, so
as our wilderness may be turned into a fruitful field, and that field,
which now goes for fruitful, be in comparison thereof accounted
but as a desert forest.

1 6. "Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness."] — Then
there shall be an holy and wise administration of justise in those
places which were before reputed wild and desert, &c.

19. "When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the
city shall be low in a low place."] — When violent storms shall
bluster upon the earth, and fall both upon the forest and towns,
with such fury, that the city shall be uncovered therewith, and
utterly abased.

20. " Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth
thither the feet of the ox and the ass."] — Ye shall in the mean
time be so blessed with increase, that wheresoever you sow your
seed, though in moorish and watery fens, yet it shall abundantly
prosper, and grow so rank, as that ye shall be fain to send in your
cattle to eat down the first head thereof.

XXXIII. i. "Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled;
and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with
thee ! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled ;"] —
Woe to thee, 0 thou cruel Assyrian, that spoilest God's people
causelessly and unprovoked; and dealest treacherously with those

38-2 PARAPHRASE UPON

that have offered no such measure unto thee ; for God will bo sure
to meet with thee in thine own way: when thou hast done spoiling
the Jews, the Chaldees shall begin to spoil thee, &c.

2. " 0 LORD, be gracious unto us ; we have waited for thee :
be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time
of trouble."] — 0 Lord, be gracious to us thy chosen people : we
have ever hitherto depended upon thee : thou hast been the refuge
of our forefathers ; as thou hast been their God of old, so renew
thy favour and protection to us every day ; and be thou our sal
vation in the time of trouble.

3. At the noise of the tumult the people fled ; at the lifting up
of thyself the nations were scattered."] — Upon the noise of the
tumultuous onset of the Jews, the multitudes of the Assyrian army
fled : when thou, O God, didst but seem to rouse up thyself, all
those nations were suddenly dispersed.

4. " And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the
caterpillar."] — As when the country is annoyed with caterpillars>
all sorts of people run forth, even women and children, to destroy
them at once, and even the weakest can kill them with ease ; so
shall all the people run forth, to gather this spoil of the Assy
rians, &c.

6. " And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy
times, and strength of salvation : the fear of the LORD is his
treasure/'] — The main strength and stability which thy times
shall have shall consist in the true spiritual wisdom, and in the
knowledge of God ; and the greatest treasure of thy good king
Hezekiah shall be the fear of the Lord.

7. "Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassa
dors of peace shall weep bitterly."] — Behold, for the time, Jeru
salem shall be put to great distress : their captains and soldiers
shall be discouraged ; and their ambassadors, that went to treat
for peace, shall return discontented and sorrowful.

9. " The earth mourneth and languished) : Lebanon is ashamed
and hewn down : Sharon is like a wilderness ; and Bashan and
Carmel shake off their fruits."] — The whole country mourneth
and languisheth, even those parts which are remotest ; and every
province thereof beareth his own proper share in this misery : the
cedars of Lebanon are cut down: the corn of Sharon and the
fruitful pastures of Bashan and Carmel are wasted.

10. "Now will I rise, saith the LORD."]— Now, when things

J ' O

are come to an extremity, will I rise, saith the Lord, &c.

1 1 . " Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble : your

ISAIAH XXXIII. 2-21. 383

breath, as fire, shall devour you."] — Ye have conceived great
hopes of victory and triunph, but you shall go away with a shame
ful foil ; yea, ye shall perish by your own plots : the fire, which
your own breath hath kindled, shall devour you.

14. " The sinners in Zion are afraid ; fearfulness hath surprised
the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring
fire?"] — Those, that are profane and godless in Jerusalem, are,
not without cause, much terrified ; and those hypocrites, which
would not believe the predictions of these evils, are now over
whelmed with fearfulness; and now they are ready to say, Alas!
how shall we be able to endure this wrath of God which is gone
out against us ? &c.

16. "He shall dwell on high : his place of defence shall be the
munitions of rocks : bread shall be given him ; his waters shall be
sure.1"] — lie shall dwell in a safe place, inaccessible to all enemies,
and utterly impregnable ; and shall have all things cast in his way
which are necessary for his sustentation.

17. "Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall
behold the land that is very far off."] — Whosoever thou art that
walkest thus uprightly, thou shalt see the court of Jerusalem re
stored to his full glory : though Hezekiah be under hatches for
the time, yet thou shalt see him in his wonted port and magnifi
cence ; and thou shalt see him subduing other remote kingdoms
and ruling over them.

1 8. " Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe?
where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?"] —
Thine heart shall think upon the terror thou wert in when thou
distractedly askedst for thy officers : Where is the clerk of the
band ? where is the receiver ? where is the surveyor of the work ?
As if these could have availed thee.

19. "Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper
speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that
thou canst not understand.""] — Thou shalt not be forced to see
and endure the tyranny of those fierce and cruel Assyrians ; to
live under the servitude of a nation whose barbarous and harsh
language thou understandest not.

21. "But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of
broad rivers and streams ; wherein shall go no galley with oars."]
— But there, even in Jerusalem, will the Lord be unto us instead
of all the rivers and ditches and bulwarks of defence, which other
cities boast themselves of; yea, he shall give Jerusalem protection

384 PARAPHRASE UPON

without danger: in other cities and countries, where they have
the commodity of large rivers and inlets from the sea, there may
be perhaps some peril of advantage to an enemy, an opportunity
of invasion ; but here shall be no such matter : no galley shall go
here with oars, &c.

23. " Thy tacklings are loosed ; they could not well strengthen
their mast, they could not spread the sail : then is the prey of a great
spoil divided ; the lame take the prey."]— But for thee, 0 Assy
rian, howsoever thou earnest like a well rigged ship to this siege,
vet thy tacklings do not hold, thy mast totters ; yea, so shall God
ply thee with storms, that thou shalt not so much as spread a sail,
but shalt be wrecked and split, and every one, though lame and
impotent, shall share in the spoil of thee.

24. " And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick : the people
that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity."] — But my
people shall in the meantime be kept in safety and health ; forso-
much as the very cause of their suffering, which is their iniquity,
shall be removed and forgiven.

XXXIV. 3. "And the mountains shall be melted with their
blood."] — And the mountains shall so run down with blood as if
they were melted and dissolved into it.

4. " And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved/'] — And in that
great day of the Lord shall the very frame of heaven feel an ap
parent alteration, &c.

5. " For my sword shall be bathed in heaven : behold, it shall
come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to
judgment."] — For my judgment, decreed in heaven, shall be fear
fully executed upon the known and professed enemies of my
Church, upon those people whom I have accursed to an everlasting
condemnation.

6. " The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat
with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat
of the kidneys of rams," &c.] — God shall take full vengeance on
his enemies : his sword shall be as it were fed with the blood of
his great and noted adversaries : this slaughter of his shall be like
to that of an universal sacrifice, which shall be killed on the altar
of the land of Edom and all the regions of his proud opposites.

7. "And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bul
locks with the bulls ; and their land shall be soaked with blood."]
- Neither shall the tame cattle only be the matter of this sacri
fice, as the poor and quiet lambs, which have no power to resist ;

ISAIAH XXXIII. 23.— XXXV. i. 385

but the wildest and fiercest of all other creatures, as the unicorns
and bulls, &c., figuring the most lawless and potent enemies of
Christ, shall be exposed to this bloody oblation, and their land
shall be drenched and soaked with their blood, &c.

8. "For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance, and the year
of recompenses for the controversy of Zion."] — It is the time
wherein God will give a full satisfaction and retribution of the
wrongs that have been done to his Church in the consummate
plagues of his enemies.

9. "And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and
the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become
burning pitch."] — There shall be nothing but horror and burning ;
for, instead of streams there shall be liquid pitch, and instead of
dust, brimstone : and a fire shall be put to both of them, so as the
whole world shall be but as one flame.

ii. The cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl
also and the raven shall dwell in it : and he shall stretch out upon
it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness."] — As for
those hostile countries that have made havock of Jerusalem, they
shall be laid waste in the meantime, and turned to an habitation
of solitary, doleful, and dismal birds : God shall condemn them to
perpetual confusion and ruin, never to be either built or inhabited.

14, 15. "The wild beasts, &c., the satyr shall cry to his fellow.
There shall the great owl make her nest,"] &c.

See chap. xiii. 2 1 .

1 6. " Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read : no one
of these shall fail, none shall want her mate : for my mouth it
hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them."] — Inquire
after this prophecy which I have delivered to you from the Lord,
and compare it with the event : ye shall find none of these parti
culars to fail, but these fowls of solitude and desolation shall nest
and breed here : none of them shall want her mate : I have spoken
it as from God, and his power shall call them thither and fasten
them there.

17. "And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath
divided it unto them by line : they shall possess it for ever, from
generation to generation shall they dwell therein."] — He hath
distributed the land to them for their use, and his just providence
hath divided it to them by line : there they shall take up their
abode for ever.

XXXV. i. "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad

BP. HALL, VOL. III. C C

386 PARAPHRASE UPON

for them ; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose."]
—The kingdom of Christ shall come, wherein he shall rule by the
gospel of peace, at what time all things shall nourish : even those
places which now seem to be forlorn deserts shall then rejoice and
blossom as the rose.

2. " The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency
of Carmel and Sharon."]— That which was once a dry sandy de
sert shall be now as fresh and green as Lebanon, and as plentiful
and rich as Carmel and Sharon, &c.

3. "Strengthen ye the weak hands."] — Comfort yourselves
therefore in the Lord, 0 ye that are weak and dejected, &c.

7. "And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the
thirsty land springs of water : in the habitation of dragons, where
each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes."] -That barren
soil that was parched and burnt up with drought shall flow with
abundance of water, &c. ; and those desolate and dry deserts,
which were wont to be the habitation of dragons, shall now turn
moist and fruitful, so as the rushes and reeds shall cover it.

8. "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall
be called The way of holiness ; the unclean shall not pass over it ;
but it shall be for those : the wayfaring men, though fools, shall
not err therein."} — It shall not only be civil and accessible, but
holy and gracious : none shall dare to set their foot there who
are unclean and perversely wicked ; but it shall be for those that
are holy and conscionable ; and the path shall be so beaten with
frequent passengers, that those which are otherwise simple and
ignorant cannot err therein.

9. " No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up
thereon, it shall not be found there ; but the redeemed shall walk
there"} — Neither shall it retain so much of the nature and use of
a wilderness, as to give harbour to lions or any other ravenous
beasts : men of a cruel and bestial disposition shall find no place
there, only the redeemed shall be meet inhabitants thereof.

XXXVI. See a Kings xviii.

XXXVII. See 2 Kings xix.

30. " And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year
such as groweth of itself ; and the second year that which springeth
of the same."] — And now for thee, 0 Hezekiah, that thou mayest
know that this deliverance comes only from the Lord, let me tell
thee that God shall second this mercy with another ; thy freedom
with a plentiful increase of this land of thine which is now wasted

ISAIAH XXXV. 2.— XL. 4. 387

and defaced with war ; which yet shall, through the miraculous
blessing of God, become so fruitful, as that, for two years together
it shall yield thee a large and rich crop without the labour or seed
of the husbandman, &c.

XXXVIII. See 2 Kings xx.

ii. "I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the
land of the living."] — I said, I shall no more have the comfortable
fruition of God's presence in his house amongst the men that live
here on earth.

13. " From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me."] —
This very day, ere the night come, wilt thou make an end of me.

1 6. "0 Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things
is the life of my spirit.'1] — 0 Lord, by those words and powerful
acts that proceed from thee, is the life of man both had and main
tained ; and, in special, this life of mine, whereby my breath is
still kept in me is an immediate work of thine, &c.

18. "For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate
thee."] — Man, when he is once dead, can do thee no more service
here upon earth, &c.

XXXIX. 8. " Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word
of the LORD which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For
there shall be peace and truth in my days."] — I do, in all hu
mility, submit myself to the good pleasure of God, and do acknow
ledge that God hath dealt very graciously with me, howsoever ;
for, though I had deserved a present punishment, yet it hath
pleased him in mercy to respite it, and to vouchsafe to grant that
true religion and peace shall be continued all my days.

XL. 2. " For she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for
all her sins."] — She hath received from the hand of God's justice
a large proportion of misery ; double to that which, if their sins
had not forced him to this necessary infliction, he would have im
posed on them.

3. "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness."] — God
shall have his prophets, who, in the most forlorn estate of his
Church, shall excite those princes and governors, under whom his
people shall be, for a preparation for their return out of the
Babylonish captivity ; and, as that return shall be a type and
figure of the delivery of God's Church from spiritual tyranny, he
shall have his evangelical harbinger before the coming of the Mes
siah, which shall be the voice of a crier in the wilderness, &c.

4. " Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill

o c 2

388 PARAPHRASE UPON

shall be made low."]— God shall remove every difficulty and im
pediment, which shall lie in the way of the restoration of his Church
and people, &c.

7. "The grass witliereth, the flower fadeth : because the spirit
of the LORD bloweth upon it : surely the people is grass."] — As
the grass withereth and as the flower fadeth, upon every nipping
wind or scorching sun ; so do and shall the most glorious of the
sons of men, if God in his displeasure shall but breathe upon them
never so little.

9. " O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the
high mountain ; 0 Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up
thy voice with strength ; lift it up, be not afraid ; say unto the
cities of Judah, Behold your God!"] — 0 Zion and Jerusalem, do
ye proclaim to all the world the infinite goodness of your God to
you ; and therefore take all advantage of the highest mountains
to publish it, that it may be most and best heard : since it is to
you that God imparts the first tidings of a Saviour, do ye gladly
and zealously divulge it to all the earth ; and say to the other
cities of Judah, concerning the Messiah to be exhibited in the
flesh, Behold your God !

ii. "He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them
in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young."]
— If there be any of his elect ones, that is weak and distressed,
and that is overpressed with the conscience of his own un worthi
ness, such a one will he pity and relieve.

15. " Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are
counted as the small dust of the balance."] — What needest thou
care, 0 Israel, for all the world, if thy God be for thee ? Alas,
how poor a thing are all the nations of the earth, if they be com
pared to the power of the Almighty ! they are but as one drop of
a bucket to a whole spring ; yea, to the sea itself, &c.

26. " Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created
these things, that bringeth out their host by number : he calleth
them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is
strong in power ; not one faileth."] — Lift up your eyes to heaven,
and consider the mighty power of him that made all this glorious
frame ; that hath marshalled all those bright and goodly stars,
like some mighty and innumerable host : he knows them all seve
rally and distinctly, and hath ordained their several times of
rising ; and when he bids them come forth, not one of them doth
or can fail of his appearance.

ISAIAH XL. 7.— XLI. 19. 389

XLI. i. " Keep silence before me, 0 islands; and let the
people renew their strength."] — I have a contestation with my
people, which I would have the very heathen to be the witnesses
of; come therefore, O ye foreign nations, and give ear, &c.

2. "Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called
him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule
over kings?"] — Who was it that fetched faithful Abraham from
Ur of the Chaldees, and caused him to travel to the promised
land, and gave him the victory over divers kings?" &c.

4. " I the LORD, the first, and with the last ; I am he."] — I,
the Lord, am he that alters not with time and occasions : as I was
to the first, so I am to the last : as I was before all things, and
had my being of myself, so I give being and sustentation to all
things that shall be unto the very end.

5. " The isles saw it, and feared ; the ends of the earth were
afraid, drew near, and came."] — The nations round about were
witnesses of the great works I did for my people in their deliver
ance ; and feared : even the remotest of them were afraid, and
combined together and assembled ;

6. " They helped every one his neighbour ; and every one said
to his brother, Be of good courage."] — And encouraged them
selves mutually, notwithstanding, in their idolatry, as though they
would make head against the true God.

7. " So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that
smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil."] — The
foolish artificers agreed amongst themselves to make an idol, and
one of them heartened another to the work, &c.

14. " Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel ; I will
help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel."] — Be not dismayed, 0 ye my despised people of the
Jews : how base and despicable soever ye seem in the eyes of
your enemies, the world shall see and find that ye are dear to
me, and that I will help and deliver you.

15. "Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instru
ment having teeth : thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat
them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.."] — And, however
the world do now insult upon you, I will raise you up to a power
of just revenge ; and will enable you to subdue your greatest and
proudest enemies, so as ye shall humble them to the very dust.

19. " I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree.
and the myrtle, and the oil tree ; I will set in the desert the fir

390 PARAPHRASE UPON

tree, and the pine, and the box tree together."]— And, whereas
the dry and barren Avilderness may seem a just discouragement
of your passage and return, I will cause that to be pleasantly
planted, and coolly shaded, with variety of goodly trees, of all
growths and statures.

24. " An abomination is he that chooseth you."] — He that
maketh choice of such gods as ye are, to worship and adore, shall
be no other than an abomination unto the true God.

25. " I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come :
from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name : and he
shall come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter tread-
eth clay."] — I will, in the fulness of time, raise up a Messiah, who
shall call mine elect out of all coasts of the world, to my holy
service ; and he shall, by his mighty power, subdue those great
potentates of the earth who have opposed themselves to him.

XLII. 2. "He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to
be heard in the street."] — He shall make no noise in the world,
but shall come without either pomp or tumult.

3. " A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax
shall he not quench : he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.""]
— Those that are humbled and contrite shall he rather relieve
and comfort, than add any thing to their sorrow and affliction ;
and those that have received but the weakest beginnings of grace
shall have no discouragement from him, but shall be rather
cheered up by him : yet, so shall he be gracious to the penitently
dejected, that he shall not bear with the obstinate sinner ; but
shall give severe judgment upon him, according to the justice of
his demerits.

4. "And the isles shall wait for his law."] — The foreign na
tions, even of the Gentiles, shall yield themselves over joyfully to
his government.

6. " And give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of
the Gentiles."] — I will give thee for that Saviour of the world, in
whom my covenant of saving mankind was founded of old ; even
in those ancient promises which I made, both in paradise to the
first parents of mankind, and after, to Abraham the father of the
faithful ; not only to that one chosen nation, but even to the Gen
tiles also, to whom I have ordained thee as a light to guide them
unto salvation.

7. ;' To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from
the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison

ISAIAH XLI. 24.— XLII. 22. 391

house."] — That, whereas mankind was utterly bereaved of the
light of all divine knowledge, now, by his illumination, their eyes
might be opened to see the things belonging to their peace ; and,
whereas they were shut up in a miserable bondage to sin and Sa
tan, he might graciously deliver them.

T i . " Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their
voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit : let the inhabitants
of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains."]
— Let the most barbarous of all nations know that they have
cause to praise and magnify the mercy of the Lord, for that in
terest which they shall have in this work of redemption ; let
therefore the wildest Arabians sing and celebrate this great good
ness of God our Saviour.

14. " I have long time holden my peace ; I have been still,
and refrained myself : now will I cry like a travailing woman : I
will destroy and devour at once."] — I have long time refrained
myself from a revenge of mine enemies, and delivering of my
Church : now I can forbear no longer, but will suddenly express
my love to the one, and my vengeance on the other ; even as a
woman, who hath long bitten in her pain, yet when the last throes
of her childbirth come upon her, cannot forbear to cry out.

1 9. " Who is blind, but my servant ? or deaf, as my messenger
that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the
LORD'S servant ?"] — However the rest of the world may pretend
for their ignorance and blindness, yet my chosen people, who have
had such means of knowledge from me, might well put me into
expectation of great skill in and conscionable care of my com
mandments ; and now behold, to their shame be it spoken, who is
so blind as their wilfulness hath made them ? yea, not the ordi
nary sort of them only, but even my messengers and prophets,
who have challenged much perfection to themselves, they have
hoodwinked themselves from beholding the certain truth of my
judgments.

21. " The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness1 sake ; he
will magnify the law, and make it honourable."] — The Lord is
well pleased, for his gracious promise's sake, to make good all that
ever he hath undertaken concerning his people ; and to glorify
himself in the fulfilling of his word.

22. " But this is a people robbed and spoiled : they are all of
them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses : they are
for a prey, and none dclivereth ; for a spoil, and none saith,

392 PARAPHRASE UPON

Restore "J — But this people make themselves unworthy and un-
capable of the great mercies of God ; and will needs be guilty of
those great miseries and calamities that are coming upon them ;
for they shall be robbed and spoiled, and fettered in dungeons,
and be exposed to an utter vastation.

XLIII. i. " I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine."]
— I have taken special notice of thee above all other nations ;
and have entered into terms of more near and dear respects unto
thee.

3. "I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for
thee."] — When Sennacherib did so furiously besiege thee, I
fetched him off, and diverted his wars to Egypt and Ethiopia, and
so made them to be thy ransom and rescue.

So also verse 4.

5. " Fear not : for I am with thee : I will bring thy seed from
the east, and gather thee from the west;"] — I will bring all the
true seed of Israel out of their spiritual captivity, from all the
corners of the world, even from the east and west.

6. " I will say to the north, Give up ; and to the south, Keep
not back : bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the
ends of the earth."] — As also from the north and south ; so as all
that belong to mine election shall in Christ be gathered unto me.

So also verse 7.

8. " Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf
that have ears."] — Bring forth those people that were once blind,
but now I have given them eyes ; and those who were once deaf,
but now I have given them ears.

14. " For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought
down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the
ships."] — It is for your sakes to contrive the return of you my
people from your captivity, that I will send Cyrus against Baby
lon, where you are detained ; and will give him victory against
those princes and nobles of the Chaldeans, whom ye are subject
unto, who shall be glad to make use of their ships for their flight
and escape.

19. "I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in
the desert."] — As I will address and accommodate all things for the
return of my people from their captivity, so as no convenience shall
be wanting thereunto ; so also will I give all gracious helps to all
my chosen ones from the utmost coasts of heaven, for their con
version to my true Church.

ISAIAH XLIII. i.— XLIV. 12. 393

20. " The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and
the owls : because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in
the desert."] — Those that are the most bestial and savage among
all the people of the world shall wonder at the great favours which
I show to my people, and shall give glory unto me, both of power
and mercy.

23. " Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt
offerings ; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I
have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee
with incense."] — Those oblations, which thou hast formally made
unto me, have not been such as I cared to receive from thee ; I
have not been beholden to thee, for a true devout consecration of
thyself and thy services unto me : all these have been only out
ward and fashionable.

So also verse 24.

24. But thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast
wearied me with thine iniquities."] — Thou hast cast heavy and
intolerable burdens upon me by thy sins ; as if my mercy served
for nothing but to humour thy wickedness : yea thou hast pressed
me so far, as that I am now weary of enduring thy provocations.

26. "Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare
thou, that thou mayest be justified."] — If thou hast any thing to
say for thyself, speak it out freely : I give thee full scope to plead
thy own cause with me; and if thou canst, do thou either justify
or excuse thyself.

28. "Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary,
and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches."] —
Therefore I have determined to disregard and expose to contempt
the chief priests and rulers of my sanctuary, and to give up Jacob
to destruction, and Israel to the reproach of all nations.

XLIV. 6. " I am the first, and I am the last ; and beside me
there is no God.""] — I am the only true, eternal God, without all
possibility of alteration ; and therefore will be ever approved
most constant to my own decrees and purposes.

7. " And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in
order for me?"] — Since I decreed, before ever any of your idol-
gods were extant in the world, to select a people to myself from
the rest of the earth, which of your false gods could or can order
their vocation and government as I have done ? &c.

12. " Yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth : he drinketh
no water, and is faint."] — Weak and foolish man will be making

394 PARAPHRASE UPON

a god to himself; and finds himself hungry and thirsty and faint
with the very work while he makes it ; yet so eager is he in that
business, as that he forbears his own necessary sustenance in his
zeal to finish it.

1 8. " They have not known nor understood : for he hath shut
their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they
cannot understand."] — God hath, in his just judgment, given
them up to a strange besottedness, and hath suffered their idol to
bereave them of their wits and senses ; so as, though they have
both hearts and eyes, yet they neither see nor understand.

20. " He feedeth on ashes : a deceived heart hath turned him
aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie
in mv right hand?"] — That which should be his comfort is his

* O -1

affliction and misery : he trusteth to his idol, and that shall no
more help him than ashes can feed and nourish him : he hath
given way to these idolatrous fopperies, and now they have utterly
infatuated him, so as he hath not the grace to bethink himself of
his fond and wicked courses.

28. " That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall per
form all my pleasure ; even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be
built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid."] — That
saith of Cyrus, that Persian monarch who shall after many years
be born, He is the man that shall favour and restore my people,
and perform my pleasure concerning their return from the Baby
lonish captivity ; who shall also give order for the reedifying of
the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple.

XLV. i. " Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him ;
and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two
leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut."]— Thus saith the
Lord concerning Cyrus who is yet unborn, whom I have ordained
to be the king of Persia ; whom I have decreed to prosper in all his
designs, and to make him victorious over all nations, and to sub
due mighty kings, so as they shall be glad to open unto him their
most defenced cities.

3. " And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden
riches of secret places."] — I will give thee those treasures which
have been long laid up in the secret storehouses of kings, &c.

5. " I girded thee, though thou hast not known me."] — I have
girded thee with honour and power, though thou hast not con
sidered whence those favours have come; neither hast thou, 0

ISAIAH XLIV. j 8.— XL VI. i. 395

Cyrus, so well known me as to abdicate thine idolatry, and to
worship me aright.

8. " Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies
pour down righteousness : let the earth open, and let them bring
forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together : I the
LORD have created it."] — Let all my creatures, saith the Lord,
conspire together to the furtherance of the restored happiness of
my people : let the heavens, and the clouds, and the earth con
tribute all the blessings which are committed unto them, to their
enlargement and prosperity; and convey unto them the just per
formance of all the merciful promises they have had from me.

9. " Or thy work, He hath no hands?"] — Shall the work rise
up arid control the workman, and say, He hath no skill ?

13. I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all
his ways : he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives,
not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts."] — I, who am
the faithful Guardian of my Church, have raised up Cyrus ; who
in future times shall come and prosper in his great enterprises ;
and he shall build up the walls of Jerusalem ; and shall send
back the captive Jews into their country, not being hired thereto
by any price or reward, but by my immediate instigation. See
Ezra, chap. i.

14. Thus saith the LORD, The labour of Egypt, and merchan
dise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come
over unto thee, and they shall be thine : they shall come after
thee ; in chains they shall come over," &c.] — The Egyptians,
and the Ethiopians, and Sabeans shall be tributary to Cyrus ;
and the benefit of their labour and merchandise shall by him be
improved to the building of Jerusalem : so as the great enemies
of God's Church shall voluntarily submit themselves thereunto,
and shall acknowledge that God's presence is in her, and his
power for her.

15. " Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of
Israel, the Saviour."] — All this shall be done for thy people ;
but in the mean time they shall have need of patience : for thou
wilt, for a long while, seem to hide thy face from them, 0 thou
God and Saviour of Israel, and wilt give them up into grievous
affliction.

XLVI. i. "Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were
upon the beasts, and upon the cattle : your carriages ivere heavy
loaden ; they are a burden to the weary beast."~\ — The great

396 PARAPHRASE UPON

idols of the Chaldees, in whom they so vainly trusted, shall now
be pulled down, and carried away in carts, as the spoils of the
Persian conqueror ; the beasts shall drag them away, and com
plain of their weight.

8. " Remember this, and show yourselves men ; bring it again
to mind, O ye transgressors."] — Remember this, and show your
selves to be not more brutish than beasts, to worship those things
which yourselves have made ; but men, endued with reason, which
alone is able to teach you to abhor this gross idolatry, &c.

10. " Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient
times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall
stand, and I will do all my pleasure:"] — Who, from the begin
ning of times, and ever since, have still foretold you what would
come to pass ; both till this present, and in the times yet to come ;
which I have so infallibly performed, that you may hereby well
know the immutable certainty of all rny decrees.

ii." Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that
executeth my counsel from a far country."] — Calling Cyrus from
the east to execute my decree ; who shall come swiftly upon the
wings of speed, to do what I have determined, and shall devour
the kingdoms of the earth before him.

13. "I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off,
and my salvation shall not tarry : and I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel my glory."] — Howsoever ye have deserved to set
me off from you, yet will I not suffer your incredulity to frustrate
those gracious promises which I have made for the deliverance of
my people ; but will, in my just time, perform them, and will
bring salvation unto Zion, and there settle it, for the happiness of
my people Israel.

XLVII. i . " Come down, and sit in the dust, 0 virgin daughter
of Babylon, sit on the ground : there is no throne, 0 daughter of
the Chaldeans : for thou shalt no more be called tender and deli
cate."] — 0 thou glorious city of Babylon, which braggest of
thine impregnableness and might, come down, for so thou shalt,
and sit in the dust; for thither shalt thou be humbled: thou
shalt no more rule over nations, but shalt be subject to another's
power; neither shall there be any more place for thy wanton
delicacy, but thou shalt be harshly and roughly entreated of thy
conqueror.

2. " Take the millstones, and grind meal : uncover thy locks,
make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers."] —

ISAIAH XLVI. 8.— XLIX. 2. 397

Make account to undergo the cruellest bondage, wherein thou
shalt be put to grind in mills, and be whipped to all servile and
base works ; and your coy dames and proud wantons shall go
now carelessly, with their locks uncovered and neglected ; and
shall be forced to walk barefooted to their captivity through the
stony ways and unknown rivers.

3. " I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a
man."] — I will not deal with thee in any gentle or moderate
manner, but in all extremity : the revenge of men may be pre
vented or mitigated ; mine shall not.

XLV1II. 7. " They are created now, and not from the begin
ning ; even before the day when thou heardest them not ; lest
thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them."] — They, even those
hidden things, are inexpectedly brought about, and were not re
vealed to thee beforehand; lest thou shouldest say, I foreknew
them well enough.

8. "And wast called a transgressor from the womb."] — Thou
wast a stubborn and rebellious people, even from my first deal
ings with thee ; ever since I sequestered thee for my peculiar.
. 10. "Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have
chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."] — I have taken courses
with thee for thine amendment, not for thy destruction : I have
tried thee with the fire of affliction, but not with so extreme a
fire as wherewith silver is tried; that would have burnt thee up,
and not have refined thee : I have testified my choice and allow
ance of thee upon this fiery trial.

20. " Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with
a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of
the earth."] — I will free you, O my people: behold, ye shall go
forth of Babyon ; ye shall be rescued from the hand of the Chal-
dees : go ye therefore from thence with triumph and exultation,
and proclaim the great goodness of your God to all the world, &c.

XLIX. [. "Listen, 0 isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people,
from far ; The LORD hath called me from the womb ; from the
bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name."] —
0 all ye foreign nations of the world listen unto me, your Sa
viour and Redeemer : the Lord, who, before all times, had de
creed me to be the Mediator of his Church, hath accordingly per
formed it; and hath, from my miraculous conception and birth,
set me apart to the accomplishing of this great work.

2. " And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword ; in the

398 PARAPHRASE UPON

shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished
shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me."] — He hath given power
and efficacy to his word in my mouth, that thereby I may rule
my Church and subdue my enemies; his Almighty protection
hath been over me ; and he hath destined me from all worlds to
be a fit and perfect instrument of his service.

4. " Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my
strength for nought, and in vain : yet surely my judgment is with
the LORD, and my work with my God."] — Then I said, I have
omitted nothing on my part that 1 might do for the gaining of
my people the Jews ; but all my cost and pains that I have be
stowed upon them is no better than cast away : but it is mine
everlasting Father, with whom I am one, who gives full approba
tion of all that I have done ; who graciously accepts of both my
active and passive obedience.

So also verse 5.

5. " Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in
the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength."] —
Though Israel be so obstinate that he will not reap the proffered
benefit of my redemption, yet my glory with the Lord shall be
no whit the less.

6. " And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my
servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the pre
served of Israel : I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles,
that thou mayest be my salvation," &c.] — Tea, this is not all the
honour that God my Father will put upon me ; for, Behold, saith
he, it were a poor matter if thy redemption and rule should be
only limited to the tribes of Israel ; no, I will so extend and ad
vance this glorious and happy office and work of thine, that it
shall reach unto the Gentiles all the world over.

8. " And give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish
the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages."] — I have
given thee to renew and establish that covenant which is between
me and my Church ; to raise up and settle all my chosen upon
earth ; and to bring into my Church those which pertain unto it,
so as even the most desolate parts thereof may be furnished and
peopled.

9. " They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be
in all high places."]— Such plenty of provision will I make for my
people, that the very highways and dry and barren mountains
shall yield them abundance of nourishment and increase.

ISAIAH XLIX. 4-24, 399

12. "Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from
the north and from the west ; and these from the land of Sinim."]
— From all the coasts of the earth shall the Jews return to Jeru
salem ; in figure of that general recourse which shall be from all
the nations under heaven to the holy Church of Christ under the
Gospel.

1 8. " Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold : all these
gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith
the LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an
ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.""] — And now,
O my Church, lift up thine eyes and look round about thee : be
hold the multiplicity of all those nations wherewith thou art en
compassed : all these shall come in and submit themselves unto
thee : their number and accession shall be an excellent ornament
unto thee, wherewith thou shalt deck thyself, as a bride doth on
the day of her wedding.

20. " The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost
the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for
me."] — The children which thou, 0 my Church, shalt have of this
new supply of the Gentiles, since the casting off thy former issue
of the Jews, shall be so multiplied that they shall have cause to
complain of the want of room.

21. "Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten
me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a cap
tive, and removing to and fro ? and who hath brought up these ?"]
— Then shalt thou have occasion to think, How comes it about
that I am blessed with so large an issue, seeing my former brood
is lost and perished ? O God, this is thy wondrous mercy thus to
comfort me in my extreme desolation and captivity : thou, by the
immortal seed of thy word, hast begotten them to thyself, and hast
nourished and bred up them accordingly, &c.

23. " And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens
thy nursing mothers : they shall bow down to thee with their face
toward the earth," &c.] — Whereas now, the princes of the world
are opposite unto thee : then kings and queens shall gladly take
upon them thy patronage and protection : yea, they shall in all
humility yield themselves over to thy spiritual authority, &c.

24. " Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful
captive delivered ?"] — But now your diffidence is ready to say, Is
it possible that the Jews should be taken out of the hands of so
great a monarch as the king of Babylon ; or the captive, which

400 PARAPHRASE UPON

was according to the law of war seized upon and possessed, rescued
from so powerful a victor ?

So verse 25.

26. " And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own
flesh ; and they shall be drunken with their own blood," &c.] — I
will give them up to a civil and intestine war; so as they shall be
the mutual slaughterers of each other, and that with an insatiable
fury.

L. i. " Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's
divorcement, whom I have put away ? or which of my creditors
is it to whom I have sold you ? Behold, for your iniquities have
ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put
away."] — How willing ye are to put off the fault and cause of
your punishment from yourselves to me, saith the Lord ! as if I
had put you away, and cast you off, being once my acknowledged
wife, without all just reason : or, being once my acknowledged
children, had sold you to my creditors : go to, then ; let the bill
of divorce be showed, that it may appear why I rejected you ; and
let it be known how and to which of my creditors I have, upon
any contract, put you over : no, ye people of Israel, ye are they
who have sold yourselves for your iniquity, and for your wicked
and adulterous misdemeanors are ye put away.

2. " Wherefore, when I came, was there no man ? when I called,
was there none to answer ? Is my hand shortened at all, that it
cannot redeem?"] — Whereas ye ought to have sought me, I have
sought you, and been disregarded : when I came to you in my
gracious solicitations, and invited and called you by my loving ad
monitions, you turned the deaf ear, and gave no respect unto me :
what means this neglect of yours ? Am I now less able to help
and redeem you than I formerly was ? &c.

3. " I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth
their covering."] — As I did then overspread Egypt with a three
days' darkness, so I can still, when I please, veil the face of heaven
with blackness, and put it into a mourning habit.

4. " The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned,
that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is
weary : he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear
to hear as the learned."]— God the Father hath given to me, the
Messiah, his eternal Wrord and Son, power to express him fully
and exquisitely unto his people ; that I should be able to speak
comfortably to the weary and distressed souls : he doth not inter-

ISAIAH XLIX. 26.— LI. 16. 401

mit to furnish me continually with his good spirit ; but ever as-
sisteth me with his divine and inseparable grace to all the acts of
my mediation.

8. "He is near that jiistifieth me ; who will contend with me ?"]
— My God is with me, yea, He is in me, and one with me, and I
with him, so as I cannot but be borne out against all that shall
stubbornly contend with me, &c.

10. "That walketh in darkness, and hath no light."] — That
seeth nothing but cause of discomfort and dejection, without all
appearance of mitigation.

11." Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves
about with sparks : walk in the light of your fire, and in the
sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand ;
ye shall lie down in sorrow."] — Behold, all ye that out of your
own thoughts raise up to yourselves imaginary comforts, not fetch
ing true grounds of consolation from above ; make use of those
your own devices ; please yourselves in your own projects : all
that ye shall get at my hands is sorrow and disappointment.

LI. i . " Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the
hole of the pit whence ye are digged."] — Bethink yourselves, and
look back to your first original : consider how easy it is for me,
who gave you a being from the dry and barren loins and womb of
Abraham and Sarah, to revive and raise you up in your greatest
distress.

3. " For the LORD shall comfort Zion : he will comfort all her
waste places ; and he will make her wilderness like Eden.1"] — Thus
shall the Lord comfort Zion, when she is most hopeless : he will so
restore her, as that the most desolate parts of his Church shall be
fruitful and beautiful, as the paradise of Eden, &c.

9. " Art thou not it that hath cut Eahab, and wounded the
dragon?"] — Art not thou he that hast pulled down the pride of
Egypt, and discomfited Pharaoh, that proud king?

14. " The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and
that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail."]
— The captive Jews, now lying under an uncomfortable exile,
shall soon address themselves to their return : let them not faint
under their bondage, for they shall not long continue under it.

1 6. " And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have
covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the
heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth."] — I have put my
word into the mouth of thee, my prophet, and thy fellows ; but

BP. HALL, VOL. III. D d

402 PARAPHRASE UPON

especially into the mouth of that great and divine Prophet and
Redeemer of my Church ; I have held my safe protection over
thee and him, that by the saving doctrine which I shall send
into the world, and that mighty and effectual work of his Media
tion, I may set at peace and settle all things, both in heaven and
earth.

17. "Thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling,
and wrung them out."] — Thou hast drunk deep of the grievousest
of God's outward afflictions ; such as thou mightest and didst justly
tremble to taste of: even the bitterest part thereof hast thou been
forced to receive into thy soul.

18. " There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she
hath brought forth ; neither is there any that taketh her by the
hand of all the sons that she hath brought up."] — She is left
utterly disconsolate : those, that should be most dear and most
respective to her, (i. e. my Church,) even those spiritual sons,
whom she hath brought forth to an outward profession, they
ungratefully forsake her, and deny her their needful offices and
attendance. »

20. "Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets,
as a wild bull in a net : they are full of the fury of the LORD, the
rebuke of thy God.11] — Yea, those unthankful sons of thine are
involved in the same calamity with thee : if they would, they
cannot help thee : they are caught and entangled, like some wild
bull in a toil ; and so lie roaring in vain, within thy streets ; for
the wrath of the Lord hath throughly seized upon them, without
all possibility of redress.

21. " Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but
not with wine.11] — Hear this, ye that are giddily distracted, not
with wine, but with extremity of sorrow :

22. " Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trem
bling.11] — Behold, I have taken off from thee those heavy afflic
tions, under which thou didst justly tremble, &c.

LII. i. " Awake, awake ; put on thy strength, 0 Zion ; put on
thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city : for hence
forth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and
the unclean.11] — Stir up thyself, and rouse up thy drooping spirits,
O my Church : deck thyself with the robes both of joy and holi
ness ; for my pure worship shall be restored unto thee : there shall
be no place within thee for the invasion of thine heathen enemies,
and the pollution of the profane.

ISAIAH LI. 17.— LII. 12. 403

3. " For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for
naught; and ye shall be redeemed without money."] — It was
your own iniquity that sold you into the power of your enemies :
I took no price at all for you ; and therefore am not bound to
any restitution, which might be demanded of me, but will freely
deliver you.

5. "Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my
people is taken away for naught?"] — Now therefore, what have
I in lieu of this miserable affliction of my people ? why should 1
forbear to revenge it '! &c.

7. " How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that
bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace ; that bringeth good
tidings of good, that publisheth salvation!"] — How welcome and
pleasing are the prophets of God. who, upon the mountains of
Judea, preach these glad tidings of peace and deliverance ! and
how more welcome are those evangelical teachers, that proclaim
everlasting salvation to all believers ! &c.

8. " Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice ; with the voice
•together shall they sing : for they shall see eye to eye, when the
LORD shall bring again Zion." j — This shall not be a thing mut
tered in secret : thy spiritual watchmen, the seers of God, shall
lift up their voice and publish it to all the world, with joy and
thanksgiving ; and shall be, some of them, eyewitnesses of this
gracious deliverance.

10. "The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of
all the nations."] — The Lord hath showed his mighty power to
all the nations round about, in this rescue of his chosen people, &c.

11. "Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no
unclean thing ; go ye out of the midst of her ; be ye clean, that
bear the vessels of the LORD."] — Make yourselves ready there
fore, O my people, to depart out of Babylon : get you forth joy
fully from the place of your captivity ; and, in the mean time,
keep yourselves undefiled with the corruptions of that wicked
nation : and ye, the Priests and Levites, that have charge of the
holy things of God, see that ye sanctify yourselves, and hold clear
from all those Babylonish pollutions.

12. " For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for
the LORD will go before you ; and the God of Israel will be your
rereward."] — For ye shall not go out of Babylon, as ye went out
of Egypt, with haste and tumult, or as people that flee from an
enemy, but in a peaceable and triumphant fashion ; for the Lord

D d 'i

404 PARAPHRASE UPON

shall go before you, and follow you in so plain a manifestation of
his powerful presence, that you shall find no cause of doubt or
fear.

13. "Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be ex
alted and extolled, and be very high."]— Behold, that Messiah,
by whom I shall fully restore my Church, shall work wisely and
succeed prosperously in that glorious service ; he shall be exalted
and advanced above all the kings of the earth, yea, above all the
powers of heaven.

14. "As many were astonished at thee ; his visage was so
marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of
men :"] — Indeed, the outward appearance of that Son of God was
so exceeding mean and contemptible, more than the ordinary
fashion of the sons of men, as that those who beheld it were as
tonished, to see such a majesty shrouded in so plain and homely
an outside :

it;. "So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut
their mouths at him : for that which had not been told them shall
they see ; and that which they had not heard shall they consider,"]
— But yet, in the efficacy of his appearance, he shall be so glori
ous, as that, when he is graciously pleased to distil his holy word
upon the nations, kings shall stand amazed at the power of him
who worketh so mightily by it ; for they shall see and hear that
which they never could have imagined should possibly have come
to pa?s.

LIII. i. " Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the
arm of the Lord revealed?"] — But, woe is me! though we bring
such certain and happy news of a Messiah into the world, yet how
is the incredulous world besotted, that it will not believe our re
port ? what blindness hath darkened the eyes of men, that they
will not see the mighty power of the Godhead in this weakness of
human flesh ?

2. " For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as
a root out of a dry ground : he hath no form nor comeliness :"] —
For to the eyes of men he shall seem despicable at the first ; and
by degrees shall grow up to an acknowledged perfection : he hath
no loveliness or glory in his outward appearance, &c.

4. " Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows :
yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted."] —
It is for our sakes that he hath subjected himself to all those
griefs and sorrows which he underwent ; that he might sanctify

ISAIAH LII. 13.— LIII. ii. 405

our afflictions to us, and deliver us from greater judgments : yet
our unthankful ness will not acknowledge it, but is ready to cast
his sufferings upon his own deservings, as if God had stricken
him for his own demerits.

5. " The chastisement of our peace was upon him ; and with
his stripes we are healed."] — He was chastised, to work our
peace ; he was smitten, that we might be healed.

8. " He was taken from prison and from judgment : and who
shall declare his generation ? for he was cut off out of the land
of the living."] — He Avas indeed arraigned and adjudged to a
shameful and painful death, but that could have no power over
him : he was mightily rescued from it by the power of his God
head, and now lives for ever ; neither shall or can there be any
end of his eternal duration, howsoever for the time he was cut
off from living amongst men, &c.

9. " And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the
rich in his death ; because he had done no violence, neither was
any deceit in his mouth."] — He was given up into the hand of
wicked and violent men, to be by them pat to death amongst ma
lefactors ; although he had done nothing amiss, neither was any
guile found in his mouth.

10. " Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him ; he hath put him
to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he
shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of
the LORD shall prosper in his hand."] — Yet it pleased God the
Father to humble him ; and, standing in our stead, to hide his
face from him ; but with an intention of much glory to him, and
happiness to his Church : for, when thou, O Lord, shalt cause his
life to be offered up for the satisfaction of our sins, he shall, by
the efficacy of his blood, raise up a plentiful issue to his Church,
and shall be everlastingly glorified, and work happily for the
good of his chosen ; effecting all that which God hath determined
for the salvation of mankind.

11. " He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satis
fied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many;
for he shall bear their iniquities."] — He shall see and feel the
happy success of his labours and sufferings, and shall find abun
dant comfort and satisfaction therein : herein shall many, yea all
that belong to God's election, be justified ; in that this righteous
and perfect Saviour is known and apprehended by them ; and iu

K)6 PARAPHRASE UPON

that, they are known and accepted of him ; for he hath under
taken to satisfy for all their iniquities.

12. "Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong ; because he hath
poured out his soul unto death : and he was numbered with the
transgressors ; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession
for the transgressors."] — Therefore, after he hath overcome the
sharpness of death, I will honour him with a glorious triumph ;
wherein he shall, according to the manner of great conquerors,
divide the spoil of his enemies ; insulting over death, the grave,
and hell, because he hath been obedient to the death, yea the
death of the cross ; and was hanged on the tree of shame and
curse, betwixt two malefactors ; and upon that cross bore the sin
of all those that pertain to him ; and both at his death prayed
for his persecutors and tormentors, and at my right hand makes
perpetual intercession for his Church.

LIV. i . " Sing, 0 barren, thou that didst not bear ; break
forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with
child : for more are the children of the desolate than the children
of the married wife, saith the LORD."] — Rojoice, 0 thou Church
of the Gentiles, which wert before utterly barren and fruitless,
yielding no children to God ; for now the children of thee, which
wert not formerly regarded as my spouse, are more than those of
the Church of the Jews, whom I professed to love and respect.

So also verse 2—8.

9. " For this is as the waters of Noah unto me : for as I have
sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth ;
so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke
thee."] — Well may I compare the great inundation of thy sorrow
and affliction to the deluge in Noah's time, wherewith the earth
was overspread ; and as 1 then swore, &c. so have I now sworn,
that I will never give my Church over to any utter vastation.

11. "0 thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted,
behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foun
dations with sapphires."] — 0 thou, my poor distressed Church,
which now seest no cause of joy, or mitigation of thy sorrow, com
fort thou thyself with the expectation of what blessings I have
laid up for thee; for how despised soever thou now sccmest, I
will exceedingly adorn and beautify thee.

1 2. " And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of

ISAIAH LIU. 12.— LV. 2. 407

carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones."] — I will make
the evangelical Church far more glorious than that which was
under the law : there shall nothing be wanting that may set forth
the beauty and majesty thereof.

13. And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD ; and
great shall be the peace of thy children."] — God will, by the gra
cious illuminations of his Spirit, teach his will unto thy children ;
and shall, by miraculous gifts upon them, testify the descent of his
Holy Ghost; and thy true and faithful children shall enjoy a
sweet and unspeakable peace in their consciences.

15. Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me :
whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy
sake."] — Yet shaltnot thou expect such a quiet condition as may
be free from all hostility and opposition : no, there will be ene
mies banding together against thee, but without all success from
me : they shall fail and miscarry in their designs against thee, for
that I have undertaken thy protection.

1 6. " Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals
in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work ;
and I have created the waster to destroy."] — It is my almighty
hand that moderates and overrules all those powers that set them
selves against thee : are weapons the instruments of thy hurt ?
Behold, I have made the very smith that makes them, and the
arm that useth them to destruction.

17. "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper;
and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou
shalt condemn."] — Men may devise means to do thee harm, but
they shall not prevail against thee ; and those malicious tongues
that stir against thee, to accuse and reproach thee, shall be
shamed and convicted by thee.

LV. i. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,
and he that hath no money ; come ye, buy, and eat ; yea, come,
buy wine and milk without money and without price."] — Ho,
every one who is humbled under the conscience of his own wants
and unworthiness, let him now, under the reign of grace, and the
powerful kingdom of Christ, have recourse to his gracious Sa
viour ; and let him freely and fully partake of all spiritual com
forts and blessings, whereby his soul may be refreshed and saved.

2. " Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not
bread ? and your labour for that which satisfieth not '! hearken
diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good,"1 &c.J — Why

408 PARAPHRASE UPON

do you, 0 ye vain sons of men, spend your labour and cost upon
the search and pursuit of those comforts which have no true and
solid contentment in them ? Give ear unto me with all diligence;
and furnish yourselves with those graces which shall be sure to
nourish you up unto eternal life.

3. Even the sure mercies of David."] — Even those blessings
and mercies which, by my promise and covenant, I assured unto
David my servant.

4. " Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a
leader and commander to the people."] — Behold, I have ordained
this successor of David to be a perfect Mediator of the new tes
tament for the behoof of my people ; to be the head and leader
of my elect.

5. " Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not,
and nations that know not thee shall run unto thee."] — Behold,
thou shalt call the Gentiles which were hitherto unregarded of

O

thee, to be thy Church : those that have hitherto walked as with
out God in the world, shalt thou now convert unto thee, &c.

8. " For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
ways my ways, saith the LORD."] — However ye may fondly mea
sure me by yourselves, ye shall find my thoughts and disposition
is not like to yours ; implacable in cases of offence : neither are
my proceedings like yours.

1 2. " For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace :
the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into
singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."] —
For ye, 0 my people the Jews, shall go forth of your Babylonish
captivity with joy, and be led peaceably forth towards your own
land ; and all the creatures of God shall, as it were, rejoice in
your deliverance, and applaud your comfortable return.

13. " Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and in
stead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree : and it shall be
to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be

O O

cut off."] —And whereas, before your land was annoyed with
men that were harmfully troublesome and cruel, like thorns that
are ready to tear every passenger ; now it shall be planted with
persons inoffensive and beneficial, such as yield a pleasant and
comfortable shade, and profitable use unto men ; and this change
shall be to the everlasting praise of God, and for a memorial of
his never-fading goodness to his Church.

LVI. i. "Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do

ISAIAH LV. 3.— LVI. 9. 409

justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness
to be revealed."] — And now, that ye may be worthy of this high
calling of God, do ye approve yourselves careful to perform all
acts of charity and justice one to another : so shall ye be capable
of that deliverance and salvation which I have determined unto
you.

3. " Neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree."] —
Neither let the man who is sensible of his own defects and un-
worthiness, say, Behold I am not a man meet to receive grace
from God.

4. " For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my
sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of
my covenant ;"] — For thus saith the Lord unto those self-dejected
souls who yet make conscience of keeping my sabbaths, and de
sire to be approved of me in those things which I have required,
in an honest and humble simplicity ;

5. "Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my
walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters : I
will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off."] —
Even to them will I be gracious above their desire and expec
tation : I will honour them in my Church, and more than supply
unto them those blessings whose want they so much bewailed ;
and I will give them a blessed and lasting memory amongst my
saints.

6. " Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the
LORD," &c.] — Those who are the sons of them which are aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel, that yet are now, by an holy
profession, joined unto the Lord, &c. ;

7. " Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make
them joyful in my house of prayer."] — Those will I gladly admit
into thy temple, and into that Church whereof the temple is a
figure, and give them true spiritual joy in my service, &c.

8. " The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel
saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are ga
thered unto him."] — The Lord God, whose only grace and mercy
it is to gather together his dispersed Church, saith, Yet will I also
gather the Gentiles into the fold of Christ my Son ; beside those
which do already profess his name.

9. "All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye
beasts in the forest."] — Yet, before there be room for these com
fortable promises, ye must make account of great calamity to

410 PARAPHRASE UPON

befall my people : come therefore all ye beasts of the fields and
forests; ye savage Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and the
rest ; and, for the time, make havock of my flock.

10. " His watchmen are blind : they are all ignorant, they are
all dumb dogs, they cannot bark ; sleeping, lying down, loving to
slumber."] — Alas, the watchmen of my people, their spiritual
overseers, are altogether blind and ignorant ; and not so only, but
as they are blind, so they are dumb also ; not opening their
mouths to give warning of the dangers of my people and the
judgments which are imminent over them; even like unprofitable
dogs, which, being set to keep the house, have .no tongue to bark
nor eyes to see, but lie sleeping in a corner to no purpose.

11. " Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have
enough."] — Yea, as they are blind and mute, so they are also
ravenous and devouring : their appetite is ever craving and insa
tiable, &c.

12. " Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill our
selves with strong drink ; and to morrow shall be as this day, and
much more abundant."] — And, besides all these, they pamper
themselves, and flatter the security of my people; and are ready
to say, Tush, however the prophets foretell these grievous things,
let us make much of ourselves, and eat and drink and be merry ;
these sad events shall not happen : we shall in the times to come
speed as well as we have done ; yea, better and more happily.

LVI1. i. "The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to
heart : and merciful men are taken away, none considering that
the righteous is taken away from the evil to come"] — While sen
sual men do thus please themselves, God takes away his godly
and righteous servants from amongst them ; and they have not
the grace or wit to consider that this is a presage of great judg
ment, which shall fall on the heads of those wicked ones that are
left behind.

2. " He shall enter into peace : they shall rest in their beds,
each one walking in his uprightness."] — But that just and upright
man, who walked conscionably with God, howsoever the wicked
think him a loser by his death, doth now enter into everlasting
rest and happiness : and shall sweetly sleep in a bed of ease, till
the morning of the resurrection.

3, " But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of
the adulterer and the whore."] — But for you, ye wicked and
rebellious seed, who are wont to brag of your pedigree from faith-

ISAIAH LVI. io.— LVII. io. 411

ful Abraham, whereas indeed ye are a degenerate and adulterous
issue, draw near, and hear my just contestation.

4. "Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make
ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue?""] — Do ye well con
sider, that it is against the Almighty God ye have scornfully set
yourselves ? that ye have jeered and flouted at his dreadful judg
ments ?

5. " Inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree,
slaying the children in the valleys under the cliffs of the rocks ?"]
— Inflaming yourselves with the abominable lusts of your spiritual
fornication with your idols in every grove ; and causing your chil
dren to be slain in the valleys, as sacrifices to your Moloch ?

6. ( ' Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion :"
&c.] — Thou choosest thee an idol out of the river; even from
amongst those rocks or stones which the stream hath smoothed ;
and this must be thy God.

7. "Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed :
even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice."] — Every hill hath
been an high place, destinated by thee to thine idolatry ; and
thither hast thou climbed, to offer thy sacrifices.

8. "Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy
remembrance : for thou hast discovered thyself to another than
me, and art gone up ;" &c.] — Every where, even behind the doors
and posts of thine house, hast thouset up shameful monuments of
thine idolatry : for thou hast committed spiritual whoredom with
other gods ; and hast yielded thyself over to be defiled with their
beastly abominations, even upon the first sight.

9. "And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst
increase thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and
didst debase thyself even unto hell.'"] — And thou madest means to
the king of Assyria ; and temptedst him with thy precious presents,
which thou sentest to him in great abundance by thine ambassa
dors, to commit spiritual fornication with thee ; and didst abuse
thyself too shamefully unto that idolatrous pagan.

10. " Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way ; yet saidst
thou not, There is no hope : thou hast found the life of thine hand ;
therefore thou wast not grieved."] — The length of the way did not
so discourage thee as to cause thee to desist from this journey of
thine ; thou wentest on ; and because thou foundest success as
thou imaginedst in thine enterprise, thou foundest no remorse for
what thou hadst done.

412 PARAPHRASE UPON

1 1 . " And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou
hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart ?
have not I held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not ?"] —
Thou hast had no fear of me before thine eyes, else thou couldest
not, thou durst not have lied unto me, and dissembled with me :
no ; thou hast not remembered my presence, nor feared my re
venge : and all this is because I have forborne to execute speedy
judgments upon thy sins.

12. "I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works ; for they
shall not profit thee."] — But now I will lay thee open ; all the
world shall see how just and righteous thou art : thy good carriage
shall be discovered to thy shame and dishonour.

13. " When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee ; but the
wind shall carry them all away ; vanity shall take them:"] — When
thou criest out in thy distress, let these thy goodly associates help
and deliver thee ; but for them, I will blow them away, as wind
doth the dust ; they shall vanish to nothing.

14. "And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way,
take up the stumblingblock out of the way of my people."] —
They shall again inherit their old home at Jerusalem ; and shall
return to my temple ; and shall encourage and persuade each
other to an holy and conscionable profession of godliness, and to
a removal of all impediments that might hinder their piety and
obedience.

1 6. " For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always
wroth : for the spirit should fail before me," &c.] — I will not
always be exercising my people with heavy afflictions ; neither
will I always show myself angry with them ; for then the weak
spirit of man must needs sink under the burden, and be utterly
daunted.

17. "I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in
the way of his heart."] — I was displeased with him, and withdrew
my grace from him ; and he went on frowardly in those wicked
ways, which his own heart suggested unto him.

18. "I have seen his ways, and will heal him : I will lead him
also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners."] — I
have well seen the courses which he takes, and might take just
occasion to be revenged of him ; but I do rather pity his perverse-
ness, and will help him, though undeservedly, and restore his
wonted comforts to him, and to those that are compassionately
affected with his sorrows.

ISAIAH LVII. 1 1.— LVIII. 9. 413

19. " I create the fruit of the lips ; Peace, peace to him that is
far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD ; and I will heal
him."] — I do put into the mouths of my prophets those tidings of
peace, wherehy the hearts of my people shall be cheered ; and
have put the word of reconciliation into the mouths of my evange
lical preachers, whereby they may be saved : both of these mes
sengers shall come with the happy news of peace, both unto Jews
and Gentiles.

LVIII. 2. " Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my
ways, as a nation that did righteousness/'] — Yet they do, in an
outward formality, make a goodly profession ; as if they were
zealous in seeking me, and delighted in knowing my laws, &c.

3. " Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not ?
wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no know
ledge ? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact
all your labours."] — Will you know the reason why your fasts are
not accepted of me ? Behold, while you make a show of austerity
therein, ye give yourselves to carnal pleasures ; and exact, on that
day which should be solemnly holy, the hardest labours and most
servile works.

4. " Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the
fist of wickedness : ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make
your voice to be heard on high."] — Behold, though ye do formally
fast, yet you do still give yourselves to strife and contention, to
cruel extortion and oppression ; and colour these wickednesses
with a show of mortification and holiness : such a fast as this is, is
not that which shall win any favour or acceptation to you, or to
your devotions.

8. " Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine
health shall spring forth speedily : and thy righteousness shall go
before thee ; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward."] — Then
shalt thou be blessed with an happy renewing of all comforts
upon thee : thy prosperity shall be suddenly restored ; then shall
all beholders acknowledge thee for just and righteous ; and where
as now thy shame is too apparent, then, the glory of the Lord
shall encompass and deck thee.

9. "If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the
putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity ;"] — If thou shalt
take off thine hand from oppressing thy poor brethren, and ab
stain from all injurious actions which may be to their prejudice,
and shalt refrain thy tongue from speaking vainly or lewdly ;

414 PARAPHRASE UPON

10. " And t/ thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy
the afflicted soul ; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy
darkness be as the noon day."] — If, in a feeling compassion of the
miseries of the needy, thou shalt enlarge thy bounty and relief to
him, and shalt yield comfort to the afflicted soul, God shall turn
thy sorrow and calamity into joy and happiness.

12. " And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste
places : thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations.1']
— And those, that shall be of thee, shall build again the old neg
lected walls of the city and temple of Jerusalem ; and raise up
those foundations which shall continue for many ages after, &c.

13. " If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing
thy pleasure on my holy day ; and call the sabbath a delight, the
holy of the LORD, honourable ; and shalt honour him," &c.] — If
thou shalt refrain thy foot from walking, far or servilely, on the
sabbath ; and refrain thyself from doing thine own works, or
taking thy own carnal pleasures on my holy day ; and shalt, con-
trarily, take delight in a conscionable sanctifying of that day of
the Lord, as that, which is by thee accounted a day of consecra
tion to thy God, and worthy of great reverence and honour, &c. :

14. " Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD ; and I will
cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed
thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father : for the mouth of the
LORD hath spoken it" &c.] — Then shalt thou find unspeakable
comfort in the Lord ; then I will cause thee to possess and rule
over that highly situated and fruitful land of Judea, and will
maintain thee with that inheritance which thou hast now from
thy forefathers.

LIX. 5. "They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's
web : he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed
breaketh out into a viper."] — All their projects and actions are
either vain or wicked ; full of deadly poison, to the envenoming
of all that deal with them : whosoever therefore meddleth with
them cannot be free from the danger of infection and death.

6. " Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they
cover themselves with their works : their works are works of ini
quity, and the act of violence is in their hands."] — Their works
and designs, which are least harmful, are yet utterly vain and
unprofitable : however they may undertake much, their labours
come to nothing, either for the benefit of others, or their own
safeguard, &c.

ISAIAH LVIII. jo.— LIX. 17. 415

8. " Whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace."] — Who
soever walketh in them shall never have and enjoy true peace in
his soul, nor expect to be blessed and prospered from above.

9. " Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice
overtake us : we wait for light, but behold obscurity ; for bright
ness, but we walk in darkness."] — Therefore hath God withdrawn
the hand of his merciful protection and gracious administration
from us ; and we are yielded up to be a prey of rapine and in
justice: we wait for comfort and prosperity, but we find nothing
but sorrow and misery.

10. " We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if
we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we
are in desolate places as dead men."] — All the light of our former
comfort is taken from us; and we are so affected with the judg
ments of God, as that we know not how to guide ouselves in our
present condition : we cast about for helps and directions in vain,
and miscarry in the use of them : we are carried captive into de
solate places, out of the society of men ; as if we were dead car
casses, cast aside for the grave.

11. "We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves.1"] —
We do, in all fashions of sorrow, bemoan ourselves ; either roar
ing out in the extremity of our grief, as bears in a forest ; or more
silently murmuring our complaints, as doves on the housetop, &c.

15. "Yea, truth faileth ; and he that departcth from evil
maketh himself a prey."] — Yea, truth and honest sincerity is
failed amongst men ; and he that will not run into the same ex
cess of riot, but maketh conscience of their evil ways, is exposed
to the scorn and spoil of the world, &c.

1 6. "And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that
there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation
unto him ; and his righteousness, it sustained him."] — And he
saw that there was no man that would interpose himself, and la
bour for the reforming of these foul corruptions ; and wondered
to see so general a barrenness of grace, as that there was not one
man to stand out for his Church, either to sue for it, or to en
deavour the redress of it: therefore God resolved, since there
was no help or hope in human means, to take the cause into his
own hand ; and to work mightily the deliverance and salvation of
his people by his own power and justice.

17. "For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an
helmet of salvation upon his head ; and he put on the garments of

416 PARAPHRASE UPON

vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke."] —To
which purpose the Almighty hath completely armed himself with
righteousness and salvation and zeal, and means of vengeance upon
his enemies ; that his people may well see how both forward and
powerful he is to rescue them, and to plague their oppressors.

19. "When the enemy shallcoine in like a flood, the Spirit of
the LORD shall lift up a standard against him."] — When the
enemy shall come furiously upon them, like a raging and impe
tuous flood, the Almighty shall wage war with him, and join
battle accordingly against him to his destruction.

20. " And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them
that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD."] — The
Redeemer of the world shall, in his due time, be revealed, and
shall personally come to mount Zion ; and shall save all penitent
sinners in his whole Church upon earth.

21. " My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have
put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, rior out of
the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of my seed's seed,
saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever."] — Amongst and
above all other testimonies of my favour to thee, my Church, this
shall be most remarkable ; that I will give thee my word and my
Spirit for instruction, for sanctification : the one shall not depart
out of thy heart, nor the other out of thy mouth ; but shall per
petually continue to thee, and to thy seed after thee, unto the
end of the world.

LX. i. " Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, and the glory of
the LORD is risen upon thee."] — Arise out of the dust and sorrow,
0 thou my afflicted Church, and be thou glorious; for the time
is come wherein God is purposed to comfort and to honour thee
before the eyes of the world.

2. " For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross
darkness the people : but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his
glory shall be seen upon thee."] — For, behold, the darkness both
of ignorance and calamity shall be upon the rest of the earth ;
but as it was with thee in Goshen, so it shall be now again, the
Lord shall cause the light both of knowledge and comfort to arise
upon thee.

5. " Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart
shall fear, and be enlarged ; because the abundance of the sea
shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come
unto thee."] — Thou shalt assemble cheerfully together, and thine

ISAIAH LVIII. 19.— LX. ir. 417

heart shall be full of astonishment and wonder and thankfulness ;
because the store of those foreign nations, which by divers seas
are severed from thee, shall be converted unto thee, my evange
lical Church : all the forces and excellent graces of the Gentiles
shall be added unto thee.

6. " The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries
of Midian and Ephah ; all they from Sheba shall come : they shall
bring gold and incense ; and they shall show forth the praises of
the LORD."] — The multitudes of several nations shall come, and
send in unto thee, according to their sundry commodities and
means of conveyance, all manner of rich and precious presents ;
whereby they shall testify their homage and joy in that God which
hath honoured them with the high calling of the children of his
Church.

7. "All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto
thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee : they shall
come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the
house of my glory."] — So cheerful and so frequent and universal
shall be the sacrifices which shall be offered unto God in joy and
thanksgiving, as that all the Arabian flocks shall be gladly conse
crated to this service, and shall ascend up in an holy smoke to the
God of heaven ; and I will exceedingly glorify my Church wherein
I am honoured.

8. " Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to
their windows?"] — Then shall my Church, wondering at so fre
quent a confluence, say, Who are these that come flying as thick
as clouds, and as swiftly as the doves to their windows ?

9. " Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish
first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with
them, unto the name of the LORD."] — Surely the foreign nation
shall be called into the Church, even from beyond the seas : the
ships shall be employed, therefore, to bring in both their persons
and their treasures to be dedicated to the service of God, &c.

10. "And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and
their kings shall minister unto thee."] — And, in a type of the re
storation of my Church, behold, the sons of strangers shall help to
reedify the walls of Jerusalem ; and their kings shall give bounti
ful gifts towards the repairing of the edifices thereof, &c.

n." Therefore thy gates shall open continually ; they shall
not be shut day nor night ; that men may bring unto thee the
forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought."] —

BP. HALL, VOL. III. !•; C

418 PARAPHRASE UPON

The doors of the Church, under the Gospel, shall be always open :
they shall not be shut either by night or day upon any man, but
shall be wide opened to receive all coiners ; that the riches of the
Gentiles, and their kings and governors, may have a clear and
free ingress thereinto.

1 2. " For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall
perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted/']— As there
neither is nor can be any salvation out of Christ, or out of the
Church; surely that person, or that nation and kingdom, that
cometh not in, and submitteth not to the government of Christ in
his Church, cannot choose but perish.

13. "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree,
the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my
sanctuary ; and I will make the place of my feet glorious."]— All
the tall cedars of Lebanon, and all those other varieties of trees,
both for building and sculpture, shall gladly be employed to the
reedifying of the material temple ; and all persons, both honour
able and mean, shall joyfully be employed to be the pieces of my
spiritual Church and Sanctuary ; so as the place where I shall fix
my foot, and dwell for ever, shall be beautiful and glorious.

14. " The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bend
ing unto thee."] — The posterity of those that persecuted thee, 0
my Church, shall come in, and with all reverence submit them
selves unto thee ; &c.

1 6. " Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt
suck the breast of kings."] — The Gentiles and their kings, which
heretofore have been hostilely bent against thee, shall now lay to
nourish and sustain thee, even as the mother doth her child, with
the milk of their breasts ; and shall yield thee their best succour
and assistance, &c.

17. " For brass 1 will bring gold, and for iron I will bring sil
ver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron : I will also make thy
officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness."] — I know you
will much lament the ruins of the glorious temple ; but be of good
cheer ; it shall be better built than before : instead of the former
brass it shall now be enriched with gold, and in all the whole
fabric the change shall be to the better ; and whereas you have
served under an hard bondage of the Babylonians, now, instead
of those tyrannous officers, you shall have peace ; and instead of
exactors, justice.

1 8. "But thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates

ISAIAH LX. 12.— LXI. 2. 419

Praise."] — The safeguard of God shall be instead of walls unto
thee, and thy gates shall be full of the praise of thy God.

19. " The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for
brightness shall the moon give light unto thee : but the LORD
shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory."]
— There shall be a certain stability and fixedness of the happy
estate wherein thou art : thou shalt not be subject to any more
interchanges of light and darkness, or depend upon those outward
means of comfort which are wont to convey it to the world ; but
the Lord himself, who is ever one, and unchangeable, shall be thine
everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.

So verse 20.

21. " Thy people also shall be all righteous : they shall inherit
the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my
hands, that I may be glorified."] — Those that are the true and
lively members of the Church shall be all sincere and upright ;
not wicked, not hypocritical : they shall be unremovably fastened
in their holy station, as being the branches of my own planting,
and the work of my own hands, which I have made for the glory
of my mercy.

22. "A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a
strong nation: I the LORD will hasten it in his time."] — Though
thou be now small in number, yet thou shalt become exceeding
populous ; and thou, which art now weak, shalt become a strong
and mighty people : I, the Lord, will, in due time, and that ere
long, accomplish it.

LXI. i. "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because
the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the
meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to pro
claim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to
them that are bound ;"] — The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, the
Messiah and Mediator ; and hath endued me with power and vir
tue from above : and authorized and sent me to preach the glad
tidings of salvation to the humble and contrite soul ; to proclaim
liberty to those which are now in miserable captivity under
Satan ; to release those which are bound with the chains of
their sins.

2. "To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day
of vengeance of our God ; to comfort all that mourn ;"] — To pro
claim the acceptable time of redemption, now fully come to the
world, and of just vengeance of our God, against the malicious

K e 2

420 PARAPHRASE UPON

enemies of his Church, to their confusion, and the comfort of those
whom they have unjustly afflicted ;

3. "To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto
them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment
of praise for the spirit of heaviness ; that they might be called
trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might
be glorified."] — To set a day of deliverance to them which mourn
in God's Church, whether for their sins or under their afflictions:
to put off all the sackcloth and ashes and sad ceremonies of their
dejection, and, instead thereof, to give them cheerfulness and joy
and thankful acknowledgments of mercy ; that those, which before
were as fruitless and sapless stocks, may now be called, and so
approved, the fruitful and flourishing trees of righteousness, such
as God hath by his Spirit planted in his Church, for the glory
of his own mercy.

4. " And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up
the former desolations."] — In a just type of which restoration, my
people the Jews shall build again those ruinous walls that had lien
seventy years waste, &c.

5. " And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the
sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers."]
— And those which are strangers to you, both in nation and reli
gion, shall be ready to be helpful unto you upon all occasions of
your outward and secular employments.

6. " But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD : men shall
call you the Ministers of our God : ye shall eat the riches of the
Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves."] — While
ye shall be a royal priesthood, consecrated unto the Lord, and to
his holy service ; participating of all those comforts which God
hath laid up in store for them which now are called Gentiles,
whose future glory and happiness shall be an accession unto
yours.

7. "For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion
they shall rejoice in their portion : therefore in their land they
shall possess the double : everlasting joy shall be unto them."] —
For that shame and grief which ye have endured, you shall have
an abundant recompense of joy and comfort; and instead of your
former confusion, ye shall now be rewarded with contentment and
cheerfulness in the fruition of your manifold blessings ; the happi
ness of their return to their own land shall make double amends
for their captivity, and they shall find cause of everlasting joy.

ISAIAH LX1.3.— LXJI.4. 421

8. " For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt
offering; and I will direct their work in truth/'] — I, the Lord,
love sincerity and true dealing in the carriages of men : I cannot
abide that men should pretend a sacrifice to be offered unto me
when they mean nothing but fraud and violence, that they should
hope to please me with a stolen oblation : I will direct and enable
them to serve me faithfully, &c.

9. " And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and
their offspring among the people."] — Their seed, which shall be
appointed to carry the word of God unto the Gentiles, shall be
highly honoured of them, and their offspring among that people
with whom they shall be united, &c.

LXII. i. "For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for
Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof
go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that
burneth."] — For my Church's sake I will not cease, till I have
accomplished the great work of her redemption ; and have fully
finished, and openly manifested, the glory and salvation of mine
elect.

2. "And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings
thy glory : and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the
mouth of the LORD shall name."] — And those that are now far
off, even the now-despised Gentiles, shall acknowledge thy right
eousness, 0 my Church ; and that not the meaner sort, but even
kings and princes shall bless and celebrate thee ; and thou shalt
be honoured, as with a new estate, so with a name also which the
Lord shall put upon thee.

See verse 4.

3. " Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the
LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God."] — God shall
put exceeding glory upon thee, and shall cause to shine forth in
thee the praise of his wonderful mercy ; so as he shall unspeak
ably honour himself by honouring thee.

4. " Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken ; neither shall
thy land any more be termed Desolate : but thou shalt be called
Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in
thee, and thy land shall be married."] — And that new name
which he will call thee by is this ; now, whereas thou art, both
in name and condition, Forsaken ; then, thou shalt no more either
be so or be so called, but shalt both be and bo called My Delight-

422 PARAPHRASE UPON

some Spouse, forasmuch as both thy person and thine obedience
shall be graciously respected of me.

5. " For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons
marry thee."] — The outward and bodily marriage is and shall be
the image of this spiritual : behold, as a young man espouseth a
virgin, so shall thy faithful ministers espouse thee unto me, &c.

6. " I have set watchmen upon thy walls, 0 Jerusalem, which
shall never hold their peace day nor night : ye that make mention
of the LORD, keep not silence."] — Behold, I have set over thee,
O my Church, faithful pastors and teachers, who shall, in season
and out of season, be instant to deliver my messages unto thee :
ye, that speak from the Lord, and are his ambassadors to his
Church, do your duty conscionably ; hide no part of God's counsel
from his people ; and be earnest with God in the behalf of his
Church.

7. " And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make
Jerusalem a praise in the earth."] — 0, be ye ever importunate
in your prayers ; not ceasing, till God have perfected his great
work for his Church, which he hath determined and begun, in
vesting his chosen ones with full glory.

8. " The LORD hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm
of his strength, Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat
for thine enemies."] — The Lord hath engaged himself by his
oath, and hath sworn by his power and omnipotence, that he will
no more give over his Church to the utter waste and spoil of their
enemies, &c.

10. "Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way
of the people ; cast up, cast up the highway ; gather out the
stones; lift up a standard for the people."] — My Church shall be
as a populous and well traded city, which shall be full of infinite
resort : go to then, 0 my spiritual overseers ; pass through the
gates diligently and frequently, and make way for that happy
concourse which shall be thither ; remove those hinderances and
scandals which may lie in the way of my people ; and call all
mine to an holy and constant profession and maintenance of my
truth.

LXIII. i. "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed
garments from Bozrah ? this that is glorious in his apparel, tra
velling in the greatness of his strength ? I that speak in right
eousness, mighty to save."]— Who is this, shall my wondering

ISAIAH LXII. 5.— LXIII. 8. 423

Church say concerning her God and Saviour, who is this that
comes out from among the troops of his enemies, with garments
distained with blood ; even this, that is decked with the glory of
his victory and triumph ? Dost thou ask who I am, 0 my
Church ? shall he say : I am thy righteous and holy Redeemer ;
mighty to save and deliver mine elect.

2. "Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy gar
ments like him that treadeth in the winefat ? "] — Wherefore then,
0 Saviour, art thou thus suited in crimson, and dyed red with
blood? If thou be so powerful to save us, how hast thou not deli
vered thyself from this effusion of thine own blood ? or is it the
blood of enemies that hath thus drenched thy robes ; so that
thou lookest as one that hath been treading in the winepress, all
tainted with the blood of the grape ?

3. " I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people
there was none with me : for I will tread them in mine anger,
and trample them in my fury ; and their blood shall be sprinkled
upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment."] — It is true,
O my Church, I have been indeed treading the winepress of my
Father's wrath : I have been crushing and trampling upon all
the clusters of mine enemies ; even I alone, by my mighty power,
have trod them under my feet, without the supply of all other
helps : the victory is mine alone, which I will, in my good time,
fully accomplish; for I will, in my just anger, be exquisitely
avenged of all those that maliciously rise up against me, and will
give proofs to the world of my vengeance and their sufferings.

4. " For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year
of my redeemed is come."] — For I have eternally decreed and
set the day wherein I shall be perfectly revenged of the proud
and wicked enemies of my Church, and wherein I shall fully re
deem my faithful people.

5. "And I looked, and there was none to help; and I won
dered that there was none to uphold :"] — I saw there was no help
to be expected from any finite creature ; and being much affected
to see so remediless a desolation of my Church, I addressed my
self to the work, and by my own power wrought their deliver
ance, &c.

8. " For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will
not lie: so he was their Saviour."] — For he said, Surely, these
are my chosen ones, my peculiar people ; they will stick fast to
me, and will not degenerate into wicked and lewd courses : so he

424 PAR API-Ill ASE UPON

who 'expected this holiness and perseverance from them was a
Saviour unto them.

9. "In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his
presence saved them."] — In all their afflictions he pitied them, and
did, as it were, suffer with them ; and the Angel of his covenant,
who still appears before his face to intercede for his Church, saved
them for the dangers of manifold destructions, &c.

n. " Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his
people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea
with the shepherd of his flock ? where is he that put his holy
Spirit within him ?"] — Then he remembered the days of old ; and
those ancient passages that were betwixt Moses and his people,
whose posterity, in their present distresses are ready to say,
Where now is that God that did so powerfully bring his people
through the sea, by the hand of Moses their leader ? where is
he that did then put his Holy Spirit into that faithful guide of his
people ?

13. " That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wil
derness."] — He that led them through the Red sea with no less
security and confidence than an horse walks in an even and smooth
down, fyc.

So verse 14.

15. " The sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward
me? are they restrained ?"] — The yearning of thy bowels and thy
tender compassions toward thy people.

16. " Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be igno
rant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not :"] — 0 God, how boldly
may we sue to thee, since thou art our Father ! nothing in the
world can strip us of this relation to thee : whatever become of all
these terms of cognation and consanguinity, which the world can
afford, surely nothing can hinder this our challenge of interest in
thee : and however we have made ourselves by our sins unworthy
to be owned by our father Abraham, if he could take notice of
these earthly things, yet do not thou cast us utterly off from the
benefit of that covenant which thou madest with him and his
seed: &c.

17. "O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways,
and hardened our heart from thy fear?"]— 0 Lord, we know if
thou guide us not we cannot but err : why hast thou withdrawn
thy Spirit from us upon the just desert of our sins, so as we have
thereupon gone astray from thy laws ? why hast thou, in the pu-

ISAIAH LXIII.9.— LX1V.5. 425

irishmen! of our wickedness, given us over to the hardening of our
own hearts before thee ?

18. "The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little
while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary."] — It
is but a little while, in comparison of the promise and covenant
made to thy people, that thy peculiar and select nation have pos
sessed this good land ; and now our adversaries have destroyed
thy holy temple.

19. "We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they
were not called by thy name."] — They can challenge no part in
thee : we are thine own charge and chosen inheritance ; thou
hast given laws to us, and hast exercised a special sovereignty
over us : thou hast not done so to them ; they were never so
endeared to thee, never so much graced by thee.

LXI V. i . "0 that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou
wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy
presence."] — 0 that thou wouldest magnify thy mighty power in
the deliverance of thy people ; and, for that cause, that thou
wouldest tear open the heavens before thee, that they may give
way to thy coming down ; and the mountains might melt and flow
like water at the terror of thy presence !

2 "As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters
to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the
nations may tremble at thy presence !"] — 0 that thy presence to
the world might be as fire to metal or to water ; to melt the one,
to cause the other to boil ; that all the adversary powers might
with horror and confusion know thy greatness and omnipotence :
and that all the nations which now forget thee and slight thy
power might tremble at thy presence !

4. " For since the beginning of the world men have not heard,
nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, 0 God, beside
thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him."] —
Thou hast done many and great wonders for thy people of ancient
times; such as whereby thou hast approved thyself to be the only
true God; so as the ear hath not heard nor the eye seen the
clear demonstrations of any god but thyself; of such infinite power
and mercy to provide so graciously and miraculously for those
that depend upon thee.

5. " Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness,
those that remember thee in thy ways : behold, thou art wroth ;
for we have sinned : in those is continuance, and we shall be

426 PARAPHRASE UPON

saved."] — Thou hast heretofore given merciful proofs of thy favour
to our forefathers, who rejoiced in thee, and lived holily before
thee; and so thou art ready to do to those that awfully and
thankfully acknowledge thee, and adore thee, in the ways of thy
justice and mercy : but as for us, thou art displeased with us,
for we have done wickedly before thee ; whereas if we had the
grace to continue in those ways of thine we should be sure to be
saved.

6. " But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteous
nesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."] — But we are all
very abominably sinful before thee, and our very best services and
obediences are full of odious and shameful corruptions ; and there
fore under this displeasure of thine we cannot but fall away, as a
dry leaf from the tree; and the just punishment of our iniquities,
like a wind, hath blown us away and dispersed us.

LXV. i. " I am sought of them that asked not for me ; I am
found of them that sought me not : I said, Behold me, behold me,
unto a nation that was not called by my name."] — Whatsoever
become of you, my late people of the Jews, my covenant shall be
made good with another nation whom ye think not of ; behold,
the Gentiles shall come in your room; I am sought of them
which were before utter aliens from me and my Church ; and I
am accordingly found of them which heretofore sought me not :
I called a people unto my Covenant of Grace which had before
no relation unto me either of name or interest.

2. "I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious
people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their
own thoughts ;"] — I have made continual and important means
to these rebellious Jews ; who yet will not be reclaimed, but walk
on, lewdly and stubbornly, in their own vain and sinful lusts ;

3. " That sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon
altars of brick;"] — That sacrificeth in those groves which they
have in their private orchards, and upon their own erected altars,
according to their vain and superstitious fancies, contrary to the
charge of God, who hath confined their services and oblations to
his altar at Jerusalem ;

4. " Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monu
ments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is
in their vessels;"]— Which, in devilish fashion, gave themselves
to the practice of necromancy, consulting with evil spirits under

ISAIAH LXIV. 6.— LXV. 13. 427

the form of the dead, and making no difference of those meats
which the law hath made abominably unclean ;

5. " Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I
am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that
burneth all the day."] — Which, in the pride and scorn of their
heart, are ready to say to the holy prophets of God, admonishing
them of their sins, Tush, I regard thee not ; keep thy counsel to
thyself: I am holier than thou. These are tedious and noisome
to me ; and their proud hypocrisy is such as shall provoke my
perpetual indignation, to burn them up like an unquenchable fire
continually.

8. "Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the
cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not ; for a blessing is in it : so
will I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all/']
— Thus saith the Lord, As a man that intends to cut down or
root up a sour ill-fruited vine, and, finding one branch of it yield
ing a kindly and pleasing grape, forbears to destroy it ; so will
I do with my people : though in a generality they deserve an
utter extirpation ; yet for the sake of some of them, whom I
have found careful and conscionable, I have resolved not to de
stroy them all.

9. " An inheritor of my mountains."] — A people that shall in
herit and possess that my mountainous country of Judea.

10. "And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of
Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that
have sought me."] — And there shall be a frequent rehabitation of
the whole land of Israel and Judah : the late desolate pastures of
Sharon and the fruitful valley of Achor shall be again put to
use, and serve for the feeding and grazing of your flocks and
herds.

11. " But ye are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my
holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that fur
nish the drink offering unto that number."] — But ye are they
that forsake the Lord ; that do wilfully neglect my chosen moun
tain of Zion, and my holy temple there ; that offer sacrifice to a
base rabble of counterfeit gods, and furnish drink offerings to all
the innumerable hosts of heaven.

1 2. " Therefore will I number you to the sword,"] — Therefore
will I design you to destruction, &c.

13. " Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants
shall eat, but ye shall be hungry : behold, my servants shall

428 PARAPHRASE UPON

drink, but ye shall be thirsty : behold, my servants shall rejoice,
but ye shall be ashamed."] — Ye have made a fashionable profes
sion of service to me, but there hath been no truth therein ; and
ye shall speed accordingly : for, behold, thcsa that are indeed my
true and faithful servants, shall eat, and drink, and rejoice, and
enjoy the good things of the land ; when ye hypocrites shall be
held short of all these comforts, and shall be punished with shame
and want.

So verse 14.

15." And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my
chosen : for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants
by another name."] — And that name, whereof ye now vainly
boast, shall no more be disgraced by you ; but contrarily, instead
thereof, your name and memory shall be execrable to all my
chosen ; so as when they would curse another they shall say, So
may God curse thee as he did the Jews ; for the Lord God shall
destroy thee, and call his servants out of other nations, and by
other names ; even by the glorious names of Christians.

1 6. "That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless
himself in the God of truth ; and he that sweareth in the earth
shall swear by the God of truth ; because the former troubles are
forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes."] — And all
the earth over men shall give themselves to the holy and con-
scionable worship of God : whether they pray, or whether they
swear, or whatsoever act of religion they do, it shall be directed
to the only true God ; for God hath determined to put a final end
to the calamities of his Church, and not to see their grievous dis
tresses any longer.

17. " For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth : and
the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.11] —
Behold, I will renew all things by the power and government of
my Son Christ: the whole world shall be then cast in a new
mould ; the former condition, which served only for a shadow of
the future, shall then vanish, and be no more of use or remem
brance.

18. "But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I
create : for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her
people a joy."]— Be ye glad and rejoice for ever, O ye faithful
souls, which shall receive the benefit of this happy renovation; for
I will give fulness of joy unto my Church, and will make my
people eternally blessed.

ISAIAH LXV. 15.— LXVJ. 5. 42<)

20. " There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an
old man that hath not filled his days : for the child shall die
an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old
shall be accursed."] — There shall be a perfect age and stature in
Christ ; no deficiency either in a nonage or a decrepit estate,
but all shall attain to their due growth : the child shall not die
till he be an hundred years old, and shall reach to an happy matu
rity ; and those that are old shall enjoy a strong and vigorous
age : thus spiritually blessed shall they be that are in Christ :
but those who are out of him are no less miserable ; for the
sinner, though he enjoy a long life here on earth, yet is and
shall be accursed ; the length of his days shall add to the extre
mity of his torment.

25. "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together," &c.]

See chap. xi. 6.

LXVI. T. "Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build
unto me? and where is the place of my rest?"] — Why do ye,
vain Jews, think to merit me ; and boast yourselves of a temple
built to me ? as if that were a sufficient cover for all your hypo
crisy and misbehaviour : no ; ye know well enough I have no
need of an house of your making ; I have another manner of
house of my own, even the heaven of heavens is the roof of it,
and the earth is the floor of it ; in that I can and do gloriously
dwell, without any material fabric of yours.

2. " But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and
of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word."] — My love and
respect is to that man that is of a true, broken, penitent, faithful
heart : he is a fit temple for me to dwell in, &c.

3. " He that killeth an ox is as {/"he slew a man."] — Without
this, all your legal compliments of ceremonies are not only vain,
but odious : he that killeth an ox, in a formal sacrifice to me, is as
pleasing as if he had murdered a man ; &c.

4. " I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears
upon them," &c.] — I will make choice of their own delusions
wherewith to punish them : they thought to deceive me with their
hypocritical devotions, and I will make their very hypocrisy their
confusion; and will bring upon them those judgments which they
most of all feared, &c.

5. "Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my
name's sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified : but he shall appear

430 PARAPHRASE UPON

to your joy, and they shall be ashamed."] — Those false brethren
of yours, that hated you for your piety and goodness, were ready to
say, We are more careful to glorify God than yourselves ; or, Let
God glorify himself by his judgments where they are deserved :
but they shall once find it otherwise with them ; for God shall
appear to your joy and their confusion.

6. " A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a
voice of the LORD, that rendereth recompense to his enemies."]
— Behold, their judgment is not afar off: hearken! methinks I
do already hear a voice of noise and tumult from the city of
Jerusalem, and from the temple, which shall be wasted ; even a
fearful voice of that just God which rendereth vengeance to his
enemies.

7. " Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain
came, she was delivered of a man child."] — My Church under
the Gospel shall be exceedingly fruitful : she shall bear children
unto her God with great ease and speed ; yea, she shall bear
a generous and manly issue before she finds the throes of her
travail.

So verse 8.

9. " Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth ?
saith the LORD."] — What marvel can there be of this easy and
speedy multiplication of the Church, when as the Lord himself
hath undertaken the work ? Is there any thing impossible or
difficult to the Almighty ? Finite powers may fail ; but shall I
bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth ? saith the
Lord ; &c.

12. "For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to
her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing
stream : then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and
be dandled upon her knees."] —Behold, I will give an happy and
glorious condition to my Church : her peace and prosperity shall
overflow her, like a full river ; and the glory and excellency of
the Gentiles shall come gushing in upon her, like a strong torrent :
then shall ye sons of the Church your Mother suck the breasts of
her happy nourishment ; and she. like an indulgent mother, shall
bear you close to her in her arms, and shall dandle you on her
knees, and testify her dear love and care of your tendance and
education.

14. "And your bones shall flourish like an herb."]— Ye, which
lay like dry bones scattered upon the earth, shall then live again
and flourish, as an herb of the field, Sic.

ISAIAH LXVI.6-20. 431

15. " For, behold, the LOED will come with fire, and with his
chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury."] — For,
behold, the Lord will come in a furious and terrible manner, to
take vengeance on his enemies ; so as his adversaries shall be
confounded with the horror thereof, &c.

17. "They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in
the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and
the abominations, and the mouse, shall be consumed together,
saith the LORD."] — They that give themselves to their idolatries
in their private groves within their orchards, with all fond cere
monies of superstition, making choice of some one tree above the
rest, more peculiarly consecrated to their false god ; and do wil
fully transgress the law of God, in eating those things which are
forbidden, as abominably unclean ; they shall be consumed toge
ther, both the superstitious and the profane, saith the Lord.

18. "It shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues;
and they shall come, and see my glory."] — The time shall come,
when, out of all nations and tongues, I will gather me out an holy
Church to myself; and they shall be partakers of that grace which
hath hitherto been appropriated to the Jews ; and, as my truly
adopted children, shall inherit my glory.

19. "And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those
that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud,
that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that
have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory ; and they
shall declare my glory among the Gentiles."] — And, amidst the
common judgment, I will set a mark upon them whom I will have
reserved ; and those, that do escape of them, I will send as my
messengers to the nations round about, to convert them unto me :
I will send them, both by sea and land, to all parts of the earth ;
as to Cilicia, to Africa, to the lesser Asia, to the Parthians, Gre
cians, Italians, and to the isles afar off, that have not formerly
heard of my name, nor seen my glory ; and they shall publish my
Gospel amongst the Gentiles.

20. " And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering
unto the LORD out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and
in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy moun
tain Jerusalem, saith the LORD, as the children of Israel bring an
offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD."] — And
they shall be a means to turn the hearts of the world unto God,
and to win men from their superstitions and impieties to the ser-

432 PARAPHRASE UPON

vice of the true God; so as out of all nations there shall be .some
added to the Church, and shall hasten, by all the several means of
their conveyances, to join themselves to the assemblies of God's
people ; with no less zeal and purity, than now the children of
Israel are wont to serve and worship God in the house conse
crated to his name.

21." And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites,
saith the LORD."] — And, of these converted nations, will I take
some to my immediate service, to be peculiarly devoted to me, in
the public ministration of my Church, saith the Lord.

22. " For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will
make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed
and your name remain."] — And this happy condition of my Church
shall be during and permanent ; so as there shall never want those
that shall profess my name upon earth, &c.

23. "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to
another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to
worship before me, saith the LORD."] — Whereas, under the Law,
there were set and fixed solemnities, in which God was publicly
attended upon with sacrifices and thankful celebrations ; now,
these festivities and religious duties shall be perpetual, and con
tinue without all intermission ; and all nations shall at all times
come to worship before me, saith the LORD.

24. " And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of
the men that have transgressed against me : for their worm shall
not die, neither shall their fire be quenched ; and they shall be an
abhorring unto all flesh."] — And those that have sincerely pro
fessed me shall be made the witnesses of the heavy vengeance of
God upon them that have wilfully rebelled against me ; who shall
be tormented with perpetual anguish of conscience, and lie unre-
coverably under the sense of the fearful wrath of God, and be a
woful and abominable spectacle to angels and men.

JEREMIAH.

Li." The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests
that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin ."] —The words of
Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, that famous high priest, who found
the original book of the law; which Jeremy was one of the
priests that dwelt in Anathoth, a town within three miles of Je
rusalem, which in the tribe of Benjamin was allotted peculiarly to
the priests.

ISAIAH XLVI. 21.— JEREMIAH I. 12. 433

2, 3. "To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of
Josiah, &c., in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in
the days of Jehoiakim, &c., unto the end of the eleventh year of
Zedekiah, &c., unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive/' &c.]
— To whom the word of the Lord came, in the thirteenth year of
king Josiah ; and continued long with him ; insomuch as he pro
phesied one and forty years, under the reigns of Josiah, Jehoi-
akin, and Zedekiah, besides those years which he lived after the
captivity.

5. "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee ; and before
thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained
thee a prophet unto the nations."] — Before ever thou wert con
ceived in the womb of thy mother, I foreordained thee, in mine
eternal counsel, to be a worthy instrument of my glory ; and
before thou wert born into the world I set thee apart to this
great service, and predetermined thee to be a prophet to the
nations.

6. " Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD ! behold, I cannot speak : for
I am a child."] — Then said I, Alas, 0 Lord God ! behold, I am
unfit and unable and unworthy to carry thy great messages to the
kings and princes of this world ; I am a very child, both in years
and abilities.

7. "But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for
thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I com
mand thee thou shalt speak."] — And the Lord said unto me,
Never plead thine age or disability, for I will give thee a mouth
and wisdom ; I will send thee forth on my errand, and furnish
thee sufficiently for the service thou goest about : go therefore to
all that I send thee, and speak all that I command thee.

10. "See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over
the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and
to throw down, to build, and to plant."]— See, I have this day
made thee a prophet, not to the Jews only, but to the nations
round about also ; to several countries and kingdoms ; with com
mission to deliver my messages concerning the destroying and
rooting out, the planting and establishing, of their dominions and
sovereignties.

12. "Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen : for I
will hasten my word to perform it."] — It is true: thou seest in
deed an almond tree, in a figure and representation of that haste
which I will make in the performance of my judgments ; for, as

BP. HALL, VOL. III. F f

434 PARAPHRASE UPON

that is the first tree which puts forth, so it well betokens the speed
of rny executions.

13. "And the face thereof is toward the north."] — And the
forepart thereof to the fireward, was by the situation of it towards
the north.

14. "Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil
shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land."] — Then
the Lord said, This caldron or boiling pot is Judea ; this fire is
the affliction and vastation which it shall undergo ; and from out
of the north, even from the Babylonians, shall this desolation come
upon all the inhabitants of the land.

15. " For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the
north, saith the LORD;"] — For, lo, I will call the neighbouring
kingdoms of the north, in assistance to the Babylonians ; and they
shall come, &c.

17. "Therefore gird up thy loins."] — Therefore, stir up thy
courage, and rouse up thy spirits.

] 8. " For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city,
and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land."]—
For, behold, I do this day confirm thee against all the opposition
which shall be made unto thee : thou shalt be more surely de-
fenced from henceforth than a strongly walled city ; more firm
than a pillar of iron, or walls of brass, &c.

II. 2. "Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness
of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after
me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown."] — I remem
ber well, how graciously I dealt with thee of old ; and how well
thou wert affected to me, in my first choice of thee for my people;
and how we were mutually engaged to each other by covenants
and professions of love ; when I led thee in the wilderness, and
carried thee, with miraculous sustenance and preservation, through
an uncultured desert.

3. " Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of
his increase : all that devour him shall offend ; evil shall come
upon them, saith the LORD."] — Israel was then consecrated to the
Lord, and set apart for his service ; as the firstfruits are wont to
be sequestered and devoted to God; so as all that devour them
bring evil upon themselves.

8. " The priests said not, Where is the LORD ? and they that
handle the law knew me not : the pastors also transgressed against
me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal."] — The very priests,

JEREMIAH I. 13.— II. 22. 435

which should be the leaders of my people, do not inquire after the
Lord, but after their own profits and occasions ; and they that
handle the law do not acknowledge me, and give me that ob
servance which they ought &c. ; and the prophets turn from God
to Baal, and prophesy in his name, &c.

10. " For pass over the isles of Chittim, arid see ; and send
unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see be if there such
thing."] — Look about, where ye please ; take view of any whatso
ever foreign nation, Grecians, Arabians, or whom else soever ; and
see if you find the like inconstancy and impiety amongst them.

1 1 . " Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no
gods?"] — Is there any one of them that hath been induced to
change those deities which they had professed to adore, and yet
they are no gods at all ? &c.

14. "Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he
spoiled ?"] — What dost thou make of thyself, 0 Israel ? Dost thou
go for a son, or for a slave rather, that thou art thus spoiled ?

15. "The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they
made his land waste."] — Thy enemies have come fiercely upon thee,
and have roared and ramped upon thee, like lions, &c.

16. "Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken
the crown of thy head."] — Yea, not only those lion-like Assyrians
have come upon thee, but the weak effeminate Egyptians have
risen up, and prevailed against thee.

18. "And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to
drink the waters of Sihor ? or what hast thou to do in the way of
Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?"] — And now, what
hast thou to do with ambassages to Egypt ; what vain confidence
is this, that thou puttest in treaties of aid with them ? or, where
fore dost thou send other ambassadors to Assyria, and cravest
their friendship and succour, as if the waters of Jordan were not
for thee, but thou must drink of Nilus and Euphrates ?

21." Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed."]
—I bestowed much care and cost upon thee, in my first choice of
thee : then thou wert a peculiar and holy people unto me, &c.

22. " For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee
much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord
GOD."] — And now,0 Israel, thou art so foul, that by no human
means whatsoever, which thou canst reach unto, it is possible for
thee to cleanse and wash off the filthy spots of thine iniquities
before me.

Ff 2

43G PARAPHRASE UPON

23. "See thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done:
thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways ;"]— See what
thou hast done in the valley of Benhinnom ; and in those other
dales, where thou hast sacrificed by the brooks : thou hast been
eagerly set upon thine idolatries ; and hast run to them with no
less haste and speed than the dromedary is wont to rid the way :

24. "A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the
wind at her pleasure ; in her occasion who can turn her away ? all
they that seek her will not weary themselves ; in her month they
shall find her."] — Yea, thou hast been utterly unreclaimable, like
to a wild ass in the wilderness, which runs wild and loose, snuffing
up the wind ; scorning to be either bridled or turned in her
course : all they that pursue after her do but weary themselves
in vain, until the time come that, upon her impregnation, the
burden of her womb shall force her to rest.

25. " Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat
from thirst : but thou saidst, There is no hope : no ; for 1 have
loved strangers, and after them will I go."] — Refrain thyself, at
last, from thine abominable prostitutions, wherein thou hast laid
thyself naked to the fornications of thine idolatry ; and quench
this wicked thirst of thy sinful lusts : but thou continuest obsti
nate, and sayest secretly, There is no hope of my reclaiming : no ;
I have taken a deep affection to the strange gods of the Gentiles,
and I will go after them.

30. " In vain have I smitten your children ; they received no
correction : your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a
destroying lion."] — In vain have I bestowed my chastisements upon
you, for ye have not made any good use of my corrections : you
have been the murderers of God's prophets amongst you ; even as
a fierce lion have ye devoured them.

31. " 0 generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been
a wilderness unto Israel ? a land of darkness ? wherefore say my
people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?"] — O ye
unthankful generation, attend to this word of the Lord : Have I
been barren of my favours to you ? have I yielded you no variety
of comfortable fruits ? have I not enlightened you with the know
ledge of my name and my laws ? and now, when I have brought
thee into thy promised land, and settled thee there, thou art ready
to say in thy presumption, We are lords, and have gotten to our
selves these dominions ; we will regard thee no more !

33. " Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love ? therefore hast

JEREMIAH II. 23.— III. 3. 437

thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.11] — What profit canst
thou expect, by seeking the friendship and aid of the Egyptians,
and trimming up thyself for their acceptation? thou art both
infected by their wickedness, and hast corrupted others by the
wickedness wherewith thou art infected.

34. "Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the
poor innocents : I have not found it by secret search, but upon all
these."] — Thou art plainly found guilty of the blood of my pro
phets, which thou hast cruelly shed : there needs no secret search
for the finding out of this murder of thine ; it is open and appa
rent to the eyes of the world.

36. " Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way ?
thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of
Assyria."] — Why goest thou about to alter thy dependence ; and,
instead of Babylon, to rely upon Egypt? That trust shall fail
thee : thou shalt be ashamed of this vain confidence of thine, as
Ahaz was of his trust in the Assyrian.

37. " Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon
thy head."] — Thou shalt go forth from him with extreme mourn
ing and lamentation, &c.

III. i. "They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go
from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her
again ? shall not that land be greatly polluted ? but thou hast
played the harlot with many lovers ; yet return again to me,
saith the LORD."] — O my people, thy wickednesses are many and
great ; and yet, such is my mercy, I could be content, upon thy
repentance, to pardon them. Thou art my wife, and hast com
mitted whoredom ; thou hast betaken thyself to another husband,
and therefore hast made thyself uncapable of my reacceptance
by the law ; yet, return again to me, and I am ready to receive
thee, saith the Lord.

2. " Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where
thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them,
as the Arabian in the wilderness."] — Thou hast frequently com
mitted spiritual fornication in thine high places; yea, thou hast
tempted others to these idolatrous practices, and hast been ready
to solicit and draw on this sin with them , waiting for these op
portunities of thine idolatries, as the Arabian waits for a prey in
the wilderness, &c.

3. " Thou hadst a whore's forehead," £c.] — Thou art grown
impudent and shameless in thy sin.

438 PARAPHRASE UPON

4. " Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me ?"] — Yet wilt
thou not, after so many and grievous afflictions,, begin to recollect
thyself, and to acknowledge me ? &c.

n." And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath
justified herself more than treacherous Judah."] — Israel and Ju-
dah are both shamefully wicked ; and yet, of the two, Judah is
worse than Israel : her treachery is so much more, as she had
more favours from me.

12. "Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,
Return, thou backsliding Israel."] — Go and proclaim these words,
even to those Israelites which are now captived amongst the Me
dians in the north ; and since Judah will not hear, say to them,
Return, thou backsliding Israel, &c.

1 4. " For I am married unto you : and I will take you one of
a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion."] — For
I had made an holy covenant with you ; and will, upon your re
pentance, call some of you back again to your land, and to my
temple.

16. "They shall say no more, The ark' of the covenant of the
LORD : neither shall it come to mind : neither shall they remember
it; neither shall they 'visit it: neither shall that be done any
more.""] — They shall no more trust to the outward formalities of
God's worship, and to the fashionable profession of religion, as if
the very name and presence of the ark were enough to save
them ; neither shall their thoughts be upon these outward helps
as all-sufficient and acceptable, &c.

17. " At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the
LORD ; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it."] — At that
day they shall acknowledge the true Church of God as holy, and
as the seat of God's spiritual government ; and the Gentiles shall,
together with them, flock unto it, &c.

1 8. " And they shall come together out of the land of the
north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your
fathers."] — They shall both come together out of their spiritual
captivity into the bosom of my evangelical Church, &c.

19. "But I said, How shall I put thee among the children,
and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of
nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt
not turn away from me."] — But I said, How shall it come about,
that thou, which deservcdst not the name of a servant, shalt be
come a dear son unto me, and shalt have a pleasant and happy

JEREMIAH III. 4.— IV. 7. 439

inheritance bequeathed unto thee, even a blessed room in my
Church ? And I answered myself again, It is by the moans of thy
faithful invocation of me, and of thy true repentance and holy
obedience, that this shall be effected.

21. "A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and
supplications of the children of Israel : for they have perverted
their way, and they have forgotten the LOED their God."] — Even
in those high places, where the offence was committed, a voice
was heard of weeping and supplication of the children of Israel,
lamenting their former wickedness, and calling for mercy to that
God whom they had forgotten.

23 . " Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and
from the multitude of mountains."] — In vain is deliverance and
salvation hoped for from those idols which we have worshipped
on the hills and high places, &c.

24. " For shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from
our youth."] — This shameful idolatry is that which hath undone
both our late forefathers and us, &c.

IV. 3. "Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among
thorns."] — Hitherto, 0 my people, your hearts have been like to
a rough, thorny, uncultured ground ; but now, break up this fal
low ground of yours by an unfeigned repentance, and root up
these thorns of your corruptions.

4. " Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the
foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah."] — As ye are out
wardly circumcised, so also do ye cut off the foreskin of those in
ward corruptions, which your heart is defiled with, &c.

5. " Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem : and say,
Blow ye the trumpet in the land : cry, gather together, and say,
Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities."] —
Make proclamation in Judah and Jerusalem, and muster your
forces together : assemble yourselves, and, for fear and expecta
tion of the enemy, agree to go up into the defenced cities.

6. " Set up the standard toward Zion : retire, stay not : for I
will bring evil from the north."] — Draw your troops toward Jeru
salem, and make haste ; for I will bring evil upon you from the
Babylonians, &c.

7. " The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of
the Gentiles is on his way."] — The Chaldean is come forth like a
fierce lion out of his thicket or den, even Nebuchadnezzar ; the
great conqueror of the Gentiles is upon his way, &c.

440 PARAPHRASE UPON

TO. " Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD ! surely thou hast greatly de
ceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace;
whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul."] — Then said I, Ah,
Lord God, surely this people and Jerusalem will oe ready to cast
upon thee the imputation of deceiving them ; in that those which
have pretended to prophesy in thy name have said, Ye shall have
peace, whereas there is nothing but slaughter and vastation.

11. "A drv wind of the high places in the wilderness toward
the daughter of my people, not to fan. nor to cleanse."] — Nebu
chadnezzar came, like a boisterous wind upon the bleak hills, up
against Jerusalem ; not to fan or winnow ray people, but to blow
them quite away.

13. " Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall
he as a whirlwind."] — Behold, he shall come up as some black
cloud that threatens a tempest ; and his chariots shall come rattling
swiftly, as a whirlwind, &c.

15. " For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction
from mount Ephraim."] — I do already hear a voice from the re
motest parts of the land, which runs along towards Jerusalem,
proclaiming, with much horror and astonishment, the coming in
of the enemy.

16. "Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against
Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out
their voice against the cities of Judah."] — Yea, the very nations
round about take notice of that miserable desolation which is
coming upon Jerusalem ; and give intelligence to each other of
the fearful mischief which is now towards them.

17. " As keepers of a field, are they against her round about ;
because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD."] —
The besiegers of Jerusalem shall keep so strict a watch over the
city, as the keepers of the field are wont to do of those cattle
which arc committed to their charge ; so as not one man shall be
allowed to stir out of the walls : and all this because of their
rebellions.

1 9. " My bowels, my bowels ! I am pained at my very heart ;
my heart maketh a noise in me ; I cannot hold my peace, because
thou hast heard, 0 my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm
of war."] — 0 the unspeakable sorrow and affliction that I feel for
the misery of my people ! my bowels yearn, and my heart aches
within me, to think of this woful destruction which is approaching
to Jerusalem : I cannot contain mvself, but I must break forth

JEREMIAH IV. 10.— V. 5. 441

into lamentation ; because I do. as it were, hear beforehand the
sound of the trumpet of Nebuchadnezzar, and his alarm to this
miserable war.

So also ver. 20. 21.

23. " I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and
void; and the heavens, and they had no light."] — Alas! what a
fearful confusion do I foresee everywhere! The earth shall be so
laid waste, as if it had never had any form : the face of heaven
shall yield no light of comfort to the earth.

So verse 24.

25. " I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of
the heavens were fled/'] — I looked, and saw all turned to a woful
solitude : there was not so much as one man to be seen in a coun
try ; nay, the very birds of the air had forsaken this desolate
place, as not yielding them any means of repast.

30. " And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do ? Though
thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with
ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in
vain shalt thou make thyself fair ; thy lovers will despise thee,
they will seek thy life."] — Thou, which now art richly clad in
crimson and scarlet, and decked with precious ornaments of gold,
and which stainest thy skin with artificial paintings, and all this
to procure and draw on thy wanton lovers, what Avilt thou do ? for
those Egyptians, whom thou wouldst allure, will despise thee and
seek thy ruin.

31. "For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail."] —
For I have heard a shrieking and lamentation in Jerusalem, as the
outcries of a woman in the very pangs of her travail, &c.

V. 2. " And though they say, The LORD liveth ; surely they
swear falsely."] — And though they make an outward and fashion
able profession of the name of the Lord, in worshipping him, in
swearing by him, yet it is but in falsehood and hypocrisy.

4. " Therefore I said, Surely these are poor ; they are foolish :
for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their
God."] — Therefore I said, by way of excuse, Alas ! these are poor
and silly men, ignorant of their duties, taken up wholly with servile
trades ; and have neither means nor leisure to know the ways of
the Lord, and the laws and statutes of their God.

5. " I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto
them ; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judg
ment of their God : but these have altogether broken the yoke,

442 PARAPHRASE UPON

and burst the bonds."] — I will get me to the nobler and Icarneder
sort, their princes and priests, &c. ; and, behold, I found these
worse than the other ; they have rebelliously broken the yoke of
their obedience, and cast away the cords of God's law.

6. " Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a
wolf of the evenings shall spoil them/'] — Wherefore, I will give
them into the hands of their cruel enemies, the Babylonians ;
which, like ravenous beasts, shall fall upon them and devour
them, &c.

7. "How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have for
saken me, and sworn by them that are no gods : when I had fed
them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled
themselves by troops in the harlots1 houses."] — How canst thou
expect pardon and favour at my hands, O Jerusalem ? thy chil
dren have forsaken me, and betaken themselves to the worship of
false gods ; and when I pampered them with my blessings, they
made an ill use of my mercies, and riotously ran forth into both
bodily and spiritual adultery, and impudently trooped together to
work filthiness.

10. " Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a
full end : take away her battlements ; for they are not the
LORD'S."] — Go, ye Babylonians, go up on the walls of Jerusalem,
and destroy them ; but yet make not an utter waste and perfect
havock of that sinful city : demolish the battlements and turrets
thereof: for now I, the Lord, do not challenge an interest in
them.

1 4. " Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words
in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them."]
— Because they have disparaged my word in the mouths of my
prophets, and have said, It is but wind ; they shall find it other
wise : behold, I will make thy word to be as fire, arid this people
as wood ; so as this thy despised word shall be to the utter de
struction of this nation.

15. " Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, 0 house of
Israel."] — Behold, I will bring a nation upon you from out of
Chaldea, &c.

16. "Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all mighty
men."] — Their quiver shall be full of deadly arrows, that shall
send many to their graves, &c.

24. " That giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his
season : he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest."]

JEREMIAH V. 6.— VI. 1 4. 443

—That giveth seasonable rain in the autumn and spring, and re-
serveth a dry season for the gathering in of the harvest.

25. " Your iniquities have turned away these things."] — If ye
have been abridged of these comfortable and meet seasons, ye may
thank your iniquities which have justly procured it, &c.

VI. i . " 0 ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee
out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa,
and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem : for evil appeareth out
of the north, and great destruction."] — 0 ye children of Benjamin,
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, gather you together, and agree to
flee out of that your city ; and give warning to Tekoa to do the
like ; and set your beacons on fire in Beth-haccerem ; that all may
understand that the enemy is coming down against you out of
Chaldea with great fury and violence.

3. " The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her."] —
The great leaders of those northern people, with their troops, shall
come before Jerusalem, &c.

4. " Prepare ye war against her ; arise, and let us go up at
noon. Woe unto us ! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of
the evening are stretched out."] — Then shall the eager and furious
commanders say, Hasten your preparations against her : arise, let
us take the day before us : the time flees away ; the evening
hastens on ; let no minutes be lost for our assault.

8. " Be thou instructed, 0 Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from
thee."] — At last yet, be thou warned, 0 Jerusalem; lest, if thou
continuest obstinate, I do utterly cast thee off and abhor thee.

9. " Thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall throughly glean
the remnant of Israel as a vine : turn back thine hand as a grape-
gatherer into the baskets."] — They shall make an exquisite de
spatch of the inhabitants ; as the vine-gatherer, when he hath
pulled off the most remarkable clusters, goes over the tree again,
and gleans those bunches that remained ; so shall the Chaldean
enemies search for the remainders of the Jews escaped in the
first destruction.

11." Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD ; I am weary
with holding in : I will pour it out upon the children abroad."] —
Therefore, I neither may nor can contain myself from breaking
forth into the expressions of the fury of the Lord ; I am weary
with holding it in : I will freely declare and denounce it amongst
you, &c.

444 PARAPHRASE UPON

14. "They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my
people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace."]
— Instead of seasonable and conscionable reproofs, they have gone
about to salve up the spiritual sores of my people with flattering
and plausible words; saying. Peace, peace, all shall be well; when
there is nothing but fear and danger.

17. "Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the
sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken."] —
At least, if ve will not hear my prophets, yet hearken to the sound
of the trumpet, which tells you of the approach of the enemy ;
but they wilfully said, We will not hearken. *

20. " To what purpose cometh there to me incense from
Sheba'!*"] — To what purpose do ye think to please me with sweet
incense and perfumes, coming afar off from Sheba, offered on my
altars ? &c.

21. "Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stuin-
blingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons toge
ther shall fall upon them ;" &c.] — Therefore thus saith the Lord,
Behold, I will prepare and lay before this people means of ruin
and subversion, by which both the fathers and children shall
perish together.

22. " Behold, a people cometh from the north," &c.] — See chap,
i. verse 14, and chapter ii. verse 15, and chapter iv. verse 7.

27. "I have set tliee for a tower and a fortress among my
people, that thou mayest know and try their way."] — As for thee,
0 my prophet, I have set thee as in a watchtower, to descry the
ways of my people ; yea, I have made thee as a strong tower and
fortress against all the rage of them ; so that thou mayest fear
lessly discover and reprove thorn.

28. " They are brass and iron ; they are all corrupters."] —
Whereas they pretend to be of the best metal, gold or silver ;
they are indeed no better than brass and iron : they are all but
falsifiers and corrupters.

29. " The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire ;
the founder melteth in vain : for the wicked are not plucked
away."] — Whereas we went about to melt them, under that pre
tence of pure silver, the labour is lost ; the bellows are burnt ;
that lead which is mixed to make it run is consumed of the fire :
the founder trieth to melt it in vain; for that wickedness which is
in them is tough and unremovable.

JEREMIAH VI. 17.— VII. 30. 445

30. " Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD
hath rejected them."] — If they will needs therefore go for silver,
let them do so ; but they shall then go for such silver as they are,
reprobate and drossy; for however they are reputed amongst
men. God hath rejected them.

VII. T i : Is this house, which is called by my name, become a
den of robbers in your eyes ? Behold, even I have have seen it,
saith the LORD."] — Ye think all is well, if ye present yourselves
into my temple ; though you bring with you the guilt of manifold
sins ; ye come hither full of theft, of oppression, of injustice : is
my temple, think ye, for such clients ? Is this house, which is
called by my name, fit to be a den of thieves and robbers ? Be
hold, I have well seen and noted with how wicked dispositions
and hollow hearts ye come hither, saith the Lord.

12. "But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh.
where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the
wickedness of my people Israel "] — Look back now unto my place
which was in Shiloh, where my ark was for some time kept : it
is the holiness of my ark that makes my temple holy ; and,
behold, that ark of mine was before in Shiloh : but did the pre
sence of my ark there shelter that place from sorrow and deso
lation ? &c.

18. "The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the
fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the
queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other
Gods."] — All the sort of them, of all ages and both sexes, con
spire together in their idolatry : children, fathers, women, put
their hands to the work ; and all agree to offer cakes in way of
sacrifice to the sun or moon, &c.

21. "Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put
your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and cat flesh."] — Thus
saith the Lord God of Israel, Ye brag much of your costly sacri
fices that ye offer unto me : go, take your bullocks and sheep,
and make yourselves good cheer with them.

29. " Cut off thine hair, 0 Jerusalem, and cast it away, and
take up a lamentation on high places."] — Mourn thou solemnly,
O Jerusalem, and express thy sorrow by public acts of humilia
tion, that the world may take knowledge of it, &c.

30. " They have set their abominations in the house which is
called by my name, to pollute it."] —They have set up altars to
their idols, in my very temple, to pollute it. As 2 Kings xxi. 4.

446 PARAPHRASE UPON

31. " And they have built the high places of Tophet,"] — They
have built altars to Moloch, in the high places of Tophet, &c.

32. "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that
it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of
Ilirinom, but the valley of slaughter."] — So great a slaughter
shall be therefore in Jerusalem, that there shall not be room
enough in the valley of Tophet for the burial of the slain ; and
thereupon that valley shall change the name, and be called, The
va lley of sla ugh ter.

VIII. i. " At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out
the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and
the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the
bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves."] —The
calamity that I will bring upon the Jews and Jerusalem, shall not
rest in the living, but shall reach to the very dead ; for the very
bones of their kings, and princes, and priests, and prophets, shall
be torn up out of their graves.

4. " Thus saith the LORD ; Shall they fall, and not arise ? shall
he turn away, and not return?"] — Thus saith the Lord; The fall
of Jerusalem is great and fearful ; but yet, if they had grace to
repent, not desperate : if they would return to me, should not I
turn in mercy unto them ?

8. " How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is
with us ? Lo, certainly in vain made he it ; the pen of the scribes
is in vain."] — How do ye priests and scribes say, We are wise
and learned, and the law of the Lord is with us ; when in the
mean time ye live contrary to it ? Certainly, if this be to know
and make a right use of the law, the law should seem to be to
small purpose either in the making or writing of it.

9. " The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken :
lo, they have rejected the word of the EORD ; and what wisdom
is in them ?"] — Those that have made this profession of wisdom,
have shamed themselves by their unanswerable practice : lo, they
have cast off all care of doing that which the word of God en
joins them ; and how then can they challenge any true wisdom to
themselves ?

ii. "For they have healed the hurt of tile daughter of my
people slightly," &c.]

See chap. vi. verse 14.

14. "Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us
enter into the defenccd cities, and let us be silent there : for the

JEREMIAH V1I.3I.— VIII.2I. 447

LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall
to drink."] — Why do we sit still, ye say, while the enemy shall
come and cut our throats ? Let us enter into our strono- cities,

O "

and stand upon our defence, and rest there till these Babylonians
be departed : alas ! ye shall rest there indeed, but for ever ; for
the Lord our God hath there intended to give us up to the
slaughter : he hath there appointed us that bitter portion which
we must drink up, &c.

16. " The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan :" — &c.]
See chap. iv. verse 15.

17. "For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you,
which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the
LORD."] — Behold, I will send the Chaldees among you, cruel and
implacable enemies ; which will by no means be won to relent, but
shall oppress you, even unto death.

1 8. " When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart
is faint in me."] — Fain would I put off this deep sorrow that I
have conceived, for the imminent destruction of my countrymen,
and cheer up my heart with some kind of comfort ; but I cannot.

19. " Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people
because of them that dwell in a far country : Is not the LORD in
Zion ? is not her king in her ? Why have they provoked me to
anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?"] —
For, behold, methinks I hear already the shrieks and cries of the
Jews, because of the Babylonians that are come in upon them
from Chaldea ; and yet they are still ready to presume upon their
title and interest in God ; and say, Is not the Lord worshipped
by us in Zion ? Do not we profess him ? Doth not he profess
himself the King and God of Jerusalem ? Alas ! to what purpose
is this idle formality ? They profess me indeed, saith God, but
they provoke me the while to anger with their idolatries.

20. " The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not
saved."] — The harvest is past, and the summer is ended ; which
might have given us hopes and opportunities of succours, yet we
hear of none from Egypt, or any other our associates ; so as we
are now out of all hopes of deliverance.

21." For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt ; 1
am black ; astonishment hath taken hold on me."] — Alas, how
am I afflicted with this miserable condition of my people ! how
do 1 mourn for them ! how am I astonished to think of the mis
chief that is towards them !

448 PARAPHRASE UPON

22. "Is there no balm in Gilead ; is there no physician there?
why then is not the health of the daughter of my people reco
vered ?"]— -0 that there were any possible means of redress of
this calamity ! O that there were any medicine for this sore, or
any physician to apply it for cure ! But, alas! it will not, it cannot
be : there is no remedy to be hoped for, so as this people are
affected ; there is no way but destruction.

IX. i. " 0 that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain
of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the
daughter of my people!"] — 0 that I could sufficiently bewail,
since I cannot redress this woful desolation of Jerusalem and my
people ! 0 that I were all dissolved into tears, for this lamentable
slaughter which is coming upon them.

3. "And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but
they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth."] — They bend
their tongue for lies, and slacken it for the truth ; having no
courage to defend it, and too much to oppose it, &c.

7. " Behold, I will melt them, and try them ; for how shall I do
for the daughter of my people?"] — They pretend to be pure
metal ; behold, I will melt them, saith the Lord, and try them in
the fire of affliction ; for how can I do otherwise with them, since
they are utterly unreformable ?

10. "For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing,
and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because
they are burned up, so that none can pass through them ; neither
can men hear the voice of the cattle;" &c.] — And if, in the sub
version of Jerusalem, my people shall hope to find succour in the
mountains and waste deserts, I cannot but weep and wail, to think
how they will be miserably disappointed there ; for the rage of
the enemy shall reach so far, as to burn up and destroy their most
retired places, and to make them unfit for the use either of man
or beast.

11. "A den of dragons," &c.] — A place of horror and deso
lation.

12. "Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and
who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he
may declare it."] — How lamentable it is, that amongst all this
people there should be so few, if any at all, that understand and
will faithfully declare what it is that brings this destruction upon
the land, &c.

15. " Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood,

JEREMIAH VIII. 22.-X. 3. 449

and give them water of gall to drink."] — Behold, instead of com
fort, I will give this people the bitterest anguish and sorrow ;
and will bring upon them the most grievous calamity that can be
conceived.

17. " Call for the mourning women, that they may come ; and
send for cunning women, that they may come."] — Call for those
mourning women, that are wont to be hired for the public lamen
tations at funerals ; and let them be set on work, to practise the
saddest expressions of their wailings and sorrow.

2i." For death is come up into our windows, and is entered
into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the
young men from the streets."] — For the Chaldeans have scaled
our walls, and entered into our cities ; and are now breaking
upon us in our houses, to inflict a sudden and cruel death upon
us, wherein they will spare no age nor sex, but put all mercilessly
to the sword.

25. "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish
all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;"] — Behold,
the day is come, saith the Lord, wherein I will punish all together,
both Jews which are circumcised, and their uncircumcised abet
tors : no difference shall be made in this slaughter.

26. "Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Am-
mon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell
in the wilderness : for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all
the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart."] — Yea, I will
punish the circumcised, in their inward and spiritual uncircumcision :
the Gentiles, that are in the remote corners of the world, are indeed
outwardly uncircumcised ; but my people, the Jews, are uncircum
cised in their hearts : and this uncircumcision is so much more
odious than the other, by how much the nlthiness of the soul is
worse than that of the body.

X. 2. " And be not dismayed at the signs of heaven ; for the
heathen are dismayed at them/'] — Be not foolishly superstitious
in observing those good or ill days and fortunes, as they are called,
which the vain heathen think to be notified in the stars, the signs
of heaven : it is for those pagans to be dismayed with the predic
tions of those dismal events.

3. "For the customs of the people are vain."] — For, howso
ever those nations, the Chaldees and Egyptians, carry a reputa
tion of wisdom; yet sure their practices show them to be vain
and sottish, &c.

BP. HALL, VOL. III. G g

450 PARAPHRASE UPON

5. " They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not."] —
They must be such as they are carved, upright as the palm tree ;
for they cannot bow themselves to alter their posture, &c.

14. "Every man is brutish in his knowledge : every founder is
confounded by the graven image : for his molten image is false
hood, and there is no breath in them."] — Every workman is
brutish while he so employs his skill as to make a god to himself
by his own art ; every founder, if he had but reason to consider it,
must needs be confounded in himself at the sight of his own folly,
in making that image which he will adore : wherein, meanwhile,
there is nothing but falsehood and deceit ; for, though it counter
feit a kind of life, yet there is no breath in it.

1 6. "The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the
former of all things'3'] — But the true God, who is the portion
and happy inheritance of Jacob, is not like to these dunghill
deities : he is the maker of all things, &c.

17. "Gather up thy wares out of the land, 0 inhabitant of
the fortress."] — Truss and pack up all thy precious commodities,
0 thou that inhabitest not the villages only, but the strongest
fortresses, and address thyself for thy flight or captivity.

1 8. " Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at
this once."] — Behold, I will suddenly and violently cast out the
inhabitants of the land as a stone out of a sling, &c.

19. "Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I
said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it."] — Woe is me,
for that grievous case wherein I am! my affliction is exceeding
sore and unspeakable ; but recollecting myself, at last I resolved,
Surely this is the mischief that I have brought upon myself, and
which is justly allotted unto me : I will therefore bear it, as I
may, since I cannot avoid the undergoing of it.

20. " My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken :
my children are gone forth of me, and they are not : there is
none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my cur
tains."]— My tent is spoiled, and those cords wherewith it should
be stretched forth are broken in pieces, so as mine habitation is
wasted ; and my children, which should aid me, are carried away
into captivity ; and there is none that may afford me any help to
the settling of me again.

21. " For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought
the LORD."] — The spiritual leaders of my people are become
brutish; being indeed the chief cause of this great desolation; and
have not sought the Lord, &c.

JEREMIAH X-5-— XI. 19. 451

22. " Behold, the noise," &c.] — See chap. i. 15, and v. 15.

23. " 0 LORD, I know," &c.]— See Prov. xvi. i. and xx. 24.

24. " 0 LORD, correct me, but with judgment ; not in thine
anger, lest thou bring me to nothing."] — 0 Lord, correct me,
but in a gracious moderation : not in the extreme rigour of thy
justice ; not, as we have deserved, in thy wrath and displeasure.

XI. 9. "And the LORD said unto me, A conspiracy is found
among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusa
lem."] — And the Lord said unto me, The men of Judah and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem have banded together, and conspired
wilfully in evil, and have resolved to hearten each other in wicked
ness ; yea, they have made an agreement with idolatrous Israel,
that they will go on in their provocations of me.

13. "For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods,
O Judah ; and according to the number of the streets of Jeru
salem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to
burn incense unto Baal."] — Every of thy cities, O Judah, have
had a several God ; and every of thy streets, 0 Jerusalem, hath
a several altar consecrated to a shameful and abominable idol ;
even altars to burn incense unto Baal.

15. " What hath my beloved to do in mine house, seeing she
hath wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed
from thee? when thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest."] — What
have the Jews, once my beloved people, to do in mine house,
saith God, seeing they have committed spiritual fornication with
many idols ; and those sacrifices which now they pretend to offer
are not holy oblations, but profane and common flesh? Yea, 0
my people, thou art come to that height of impiety as that thou
rejoicest in evil.

1 6. " The LORD called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and
of goodly fruit : with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled
fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.""] — Thou seemedst,
and accordingly hadst the name of a fair green olive tree, and
madest show of goodly fruit ; but when thou turnedst wild, God
hath set fire on thy boughs, and hath broken down thy branches.

19. " Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us
cut him off from the land of the living."] — Let us not only burn
his prophecies, but kill the man : let us despatch him from off the
earth, &c.

20. " Let me see thy vengeance on them : for unto thee have 1

G 2 2

452 PARAPHRASE UPON

revealed ray cause."] — 0 God, I do not desire it, in any malice to
them, or thirst of revenge, but in an holy«zeal of thy glory ; being
by thee so directed, I, committing my cause to thee, pray for a
sight of thy just retribution to them.

XII. 5. "If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have
Avearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses ? and if
in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee,
then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?"] — If, striving
with thine own townsmen at Anathoth, tbou hast not prevailed,
how shouldest thou think to do good upon them of Jerusalem ?
since there is no less difference betwixt them, in the heady course
of their sins, than betwixt foot and horse : and if in thine own
quiet country they have wearied thee, how much more must thou
expect this success from the proud inhabitants of Jerusalem !

7. "I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage ; I
have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her
enemies."] — I the Lord therefore have for these wickednesses
forsaken my temple; I have left that which was my professed
heritage ; and that people which was the dearly beloved of my
soul, being now degenerated, 1 have given up into the hands of
the enemy.

8. "Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest:"] — That
which was my dear people doth now rebel against me, and roar
out against me and my prophets, like a lion in the forest ; &c.

9. "Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds
round about are against her ; come ye, assemble all the beasts of
the field, come to devour."] — Hereupon the enemies of my people
come up against them by my just instigation ; and all nations
come up round about, as birds are wont to come wondering about
some strange fowl ; and invite each other to the spoil. See ch. vi.
ver. 3.

10. " Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard."] — I was once
your pastor, saith God ; but since ye would not be guided by me,
now ye shall have store of other manner of pastors, that shall
lead you in your kind, that shall destroy my vineyard, &c.

1 6. "And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the
ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD liveth ; as
they taught my people to swear by Baal ; then shall they be built
in the midst of my people."] — I will make one Church of Jews
and Gentiles ; and if those nations shall frame themselves to the

JEREMIAH XL 20.— XIII. 16. 453

true worship of my name, and to the profession of the religion of
my people, then will I establish them in my Church, as true and
lively members thereof.

XIII. i. "Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go and get thee a
linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water."]
— Get thee a girdle, the emblem of thy people whom I have here
tofore kept close unto me, and put it upon thy loins, in figure of
what I have done for the Jews, and put it not in water, to show
how carefully I have kept the people hitherto from all adversity.
See ver. IT.

4. " Take the girdle that thou hast got, which is upon thy
loins, and arise, go to Euphrates."] — Then the Lord charged me,
by way of vision, Arise, go to Euphrates, &c.

7. "And, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for
nothing."] — And, behold, the girdle was marred; in figure, that
the Jews should lie rotting and forlorn in the dungeons and caves
of Chaldea and Assyria.

12. "Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Every bottle shall be
filled with wine : and they shall say unto thee, Do we not certainly
know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?"] — Thus saith
the Lord God of Israel. My people is like to an earthen bottle ;
and every bottle shall be filled up to the brim with wine ; then
shall the hearers take this prophecy in great scorn, and say, What
wonders are these thou tellest us ! as if we knew not that the use
of bottles is to be filled with wine ! tell these things to children,
that understand nothing.

13. " Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD,
Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings
that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets,
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness."] — Then
shalt thou say unto them, Even thus every inhabitant of this land,
even the kings, priests, prophets, and all the inhabitants, shall be
filled up with the wine of God's wrath ; and shall be, as it were,
drunken therewith, so as he shall no more know what to do, or
which way to turn him, than a drunken man.

14. "And I will dash them one against another."] — And those
earthen pots of yours shall be dashed one against another, &c.

1 6. " Before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains."] —
Before your feet, while ye are driving into captivity, stumble in
your dark and nightly passages over the mountains, &c.

454 PARAPHRASE UPON

19. "The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall
open them: Judah shall be carried away captive."] — Those cities
of Egypt, which ye trusted to for a refuge unto you in your ex
tremity, shall be shut up against you, for fear of the Chaldees ;
and none dare open them, to receive you : there will be no remedy;
Judah must be carried away captive.

20. " Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the
north: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?"]
— Lift up your eyes, and behold the troops of the Babylonians,
that come up against you : alas ! what shall now become of that
people which hath had thee all this while in possession, 0 miser
able Judea ?

21. " What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou
hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee : shall not
sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?"] — Thou, that now
cavillest and despisest my word, what wilt thou then say, when
these cruel Chaldees shall come upon thee? thou hast already
inured them to be captains over thee, and hast acquainted them
with thy government, and given them advantages, by calling them
formerly to thine aid ; shalt thou not then be overwhelmed with
sorrow and distress?

22. "And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these
things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy
skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare/'] — And if, in thy
secret murmur, thou shalt expostulate and say, Wherefore is all
this mischief come upon me ? the answer is ready and easy : For
the greatness of thy unreformable wickedness art thou exposed
to the shame and ignominy of the world.

23. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his
spots ? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."]
— Alas ! ye are so habituated in evil, that there is no hope at all
of your reclaiming : as soon may the blackamoor turn white, or
the leopard spotless, as ye may turn good, after so long and ob
stinate persistance in your wickedness.

26. " Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that
thy shame may appear."] — I will put thee to the greatest shame
and confusion that can be conceived, that thou rnayest appear
odious to the eyes of all beholders.

XIV. 2. "Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish;
they are black unto the ground."] — Judah mourneth : all the in-

JEREMIAH XIII. 19.— XV. 4. 455

habitants that go through the gates of their cities languish ; they
are discoloured with their famine ; and are, in the depth of their
sorrow, cast upon the ground, &c.

3. " And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters :
they came to the pits, and found no water."] — Their princes and
nobles sent the meaner people to bring them water in that ex
tremity of drought, but none was to be had, &c.

6. "And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they
snuffed up the wind like dragons ; their eyes did fail, because
there was no grass."] — Not men only, but the very beasts also,
shall feel the misery of this famine and drought ; insomuch as the
wild asses shall stand upon the rocks, and pant and gape for the
air, and draw in the cool wind, to refresh their hot and thirsty
throats, as dragons are wont to do, in the sandy and scorching
wildernesses ; and their sight shall fail them for want of repast.

8. " Why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a
wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?"] — Thou
that wert wont to dwell and continue amongst thy people, why
shouldest thou be now as a stranger that passes through the land,
and lodges there a night, and away ?

10. "They have not refrained their feet."] — They have not
abstained from any evil way.

21. "Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory."] — Do not
utterly disgrace and cast off that kingdom wherein thou hast
hitherto ruled and reigned, and wherein thou hast so manifested
the glory of thy power.

22. "Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that
can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers?"] — And now,
O ye fond Jews, are there any of those vain idols of the Gentiles
which ye have worshipped that can cause the rain to descend
upon this your droughty earth ? &c.

XV. i . " Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and
Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this
people : cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth."] — The
time was, when Moses and Samuel, in their several seasons, inter
ceded with me for the ancestors of this people, and prevailed ;
but now, if they were both together upon earth, and should sue to
me for this their posterity, they could not prevail with me, to draw
my affections to them, or to divert my judgments from them.

4. "Because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah,
for that which he did in Jerusalem."] — Because of that horrible

456 PARAPHRASE UPON

idolatry and wickedness that was committed in Jerusalem under
the reign of Manasseh, whose impiety is so much more aggra
vated in that he was the son of good Hezekiah.

6. "I am weary with repenting."] — I have so oft suspended
those judgments which I threatened against thee, and so long
forborne thee, as that now I can endure thee no longer.

7. " And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land.11]
— I will toss and scatter them in all the defenced cities of the
land, as corn is shaken and dispersed in the winnowing, &c. -

8. " I have brought upon them against the mother of the young
men a spoiler at noonday : I have caused him to fall upon it sud
denly, and terrors upon the city."] — I have brought up against
the mother city Jerusalem a young and courageous victor, which
shall spoil it, even the Chaldean, who shall make open havock of
it : I have set him upon it, in my justice ; and have brought these
terrors and desolations upon it.

9. " She that hath borne seven languisheth : she hath given
up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day.11] —
Even the strong and vigorous woman, that hath been the mother
of many children, now languisheth and gives up the ghost : her
life is untimely ended, &c.

10. "Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man
of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth ! I have
neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury ; yet
every one of them doth curse me."] — Woe is me, that ever my
mother bare me to be thus vexed with the contention and oppo
sition of all men ! yet I have done, I have deserved nothing that
might procure me this heartburning and spite amongst them ; I
only followed my calling close, and intermeddled not with the
affairs of the world ; I have neither given nor taken use ; and yet
every one is ready to revile me.

12. " Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?"] — If
thy strength, 0 Judea, be as iron, canst thou think thine iron so
strong as that it can break the iron and steel of the Chaldeans ?

15. "Take me not away in thy long-suffering.11] — Lest, while
thy longsuffering and patience bears with them, I in the mean
time be murdered by them.

16. "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy
word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart : for I am
called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts."] — So soon as thy
words were delivered to me, I did receive them with a ready and

JEHEMIAII XV. 6.— XVI. 7. 457

willing heart ; yea, thy word was my greatest joy and honour :
for I am called by thy name, 0 Lord, even the prophet of the
Lord of hosts.

17. "I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced ; I
sat alone because of thy hand : for thou hast filled me with indig
nation."] — I sat mourning and solitary, in sad and thoughtful
dumps, because of the sins of thy people, and because of thy judg
ments : for upon both these my heart was full of sorrow ; and that
sorrow was increased by the envy and indignation which this pro
phecy, committed unto me, hath brought upon me.

18. " Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters
that fail ?"] — O Lord, thou hast promised to deliver and free me;
and wilt thou be as one that breaks his word ? and as some land-
waters that make a great show after a shower, but sink away, and
disappoint the passenger.

19. " Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will
1 bring thec again, and thou shalt stand before me : and if thou
take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth :
let them return unto thee ; but return not thou unto them."] —
If thou bethink thyself of this thine impatience, and of thy too
much regard to this murmuring and disobedient people, I will so
confirm thee that they shall be forced to acknowledge thee my
faithful servant ; and if thou do wisely make difference betwixt
erroneous doctrine and the truth, and betwixt the godly and pro
fane persons, then will I admit thee to be my mouth unto my
people : do not thou yield way unto them in their lewd courses,
but let them, if it may be, come in to thee.

20. " And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen
wall," &c.] — See chap. i. verse 18.

XVI. 6. "Neither shall men lament for them, nor cut them
selves, nor make themselves bald for them :"] — There shall be
nobody left in the land to make any passionate expressions of
their mourning for them, being dead : so as to cut their flesh, or
to shave their hair ; either to wound or deform themselves for
their sakes.

7. " Neither shall any (as in the margin) break bread for
them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall
men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or
for their mother."] — Neither shall there be any left to make
funeral feasts for them, to comfort them in their mournings for

458 PARAPHRASE UPON

the dead ; neither shall they, as the manner is in those feasts,
give them the cup of consolation to drink down their sorrow for
the deceased, &c.

14. "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that
it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the
children of Israel out of the land of Egypt ;"] — The days come,
wherein God shall not so much be celebrated by the memory of his
deliverance of his people out of Egypt, which was long since done ;

15. "But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of
Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither
he had driven them."] — As by the fresh remembrance of the
great mercy that he hath wrought for his people the Jews, in
bringing them back from their captivity in Babylon, and all those
lands whither they were driven, &c.

16. "Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and
they shall fish them ; and after will I send for many hunters, and
they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill,
and out of the holes of the rocks."] — But in the meantime their
desolation shall be grievous and universal : I will call for the
Chaldeans, which shall be as so many fishers to drag them out of
their good land ; and as so many hunters to chase them from their
homes, and to drive them from all their refuges.

1 8. " They have filled mine inheritance with the carcasses
of their detestable and abominable things."] — They have pes
tered and defiled this land, which I chose for my inheritance,
with the carcasses of their abominable sacrifices, which they have
made to their idols, and with those very shameful idols to which
they have sacrificed.

19. "And shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies,
vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.'1] — The Gentiles
shall come, and say, Surely our forefathers have been miser
ably misled, and trained up in gross idolatry and false supersti
tion, &c.

20. " Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no
gods?"] — .He that is man and not God, shall he be able to make
gods ? shall that power which is finite and weak take upon him
to make that which is infinite?

21. "Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know,
I will cause them to know mine hand and my might ;" &c.] — There
fore I will with this one judgment convince them of my might and

JEREMIAH XVI.i4.-XVII.il. 4-59

omnipotence, and they shall know that there is no Lord, no God
beside me.

XVII. i. " The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and
with the point of a diamond : it is graven upon the table of their
heart, and upon the horns of your altars ;"] — The state of Judah
is desperate : their sin is not slightly sprinkled upon their skins,
but is deeply engraven in their hearts ; even with a pen of iron,
with a point of a diamond, so as it may not be denied, and cannot
be amended : and if they would smother their secret inclinations,
yet their idolatries are publicly written upon the horns of their
altars, that all the world may see them ;

2. " Whilst their children remember their altars and their
groves by the green trees upon the high hills."] — So as their
children and posterity, seeing these monuments of their altars and
groves, cannot but call to mind, and into practice also, the supei1-
stitions of their forefathers.

3. " O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and
all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, through
out all thy borders."] — 0 thou my chosen and defenced mountain,
in which my people do so vainly trust, thou shalt be as unable to
guard them from the fury of the enemy as if thou wert but a plain
field : all thy riches and treasures shall be a spoil to the Chaldean;
and thine high places, wherein thou hast sinned, shall be wasted
alike throughout all thy borders.

4. " And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heri
tage that I gave thee ; and I will cause thee to serve thine ene
mies in the land which thou knowest not : for ye have kindled a
fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever."] — And thou, O
my people the Jews, shalt be taken away from this thy native
land of inheritance, which I gave thee, &c.; ye have stirred up
such mine anger and indignation against you, as will not be again
appeased for ever.

6. " For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not
see when good cometh."] — That man shall be like the heath in a
dry wilderness, and shall not partake of the sweet showers when
they fall, &c.

11." As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not ;
so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in
the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool."] — The
wicked and deceitful man shall be disappointed of his hopes of
gain : as the partridge sits on those eggs which she never laid,

460 PARAPHRASE UPON

and can never hatch and bring forth to perfection ; so he that
fraudulently and unjustly gathers wealth shall not enjoy it, but
shall leave it in the midst of his days, and in the end shall find
that he hath been a fool.

12. "A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place
of our sanctuary."] — God hath highly honoured Judea above all
the nations of the world, in that he hath erected in her the place
of his sanctuary ; which is that high and glorious throne, wherein
God from the beginning ordained and decreed to seat himself.

13. " And they that depart from me shall be written in the
earth.1"] — They that take part against me, however they boast
themselves to be the holy and noble offspring of faithful Abra
ham, and God's peculiar people, yet their memory shall be either
base or forgotten : their names shall be written in the dust of the

O *

earth, &c.

15. " Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the
LORD ? let it come now."] — Behold, this obstinate and incredu
lous people is ready to say, Where is this word of the Lord which
we hear so much talk of? We have been told of grievous things,
of plagues and famines and the sword; but where are they? why
do they not come, as it is foretold us ?

16. " As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to
follow thee: neither have I desired the woful day; thou knowest:
that which came out of my lips was right before thee."] — As
for me, 0 Lord, it is thou that hast called me ; and I have not
dared to be averse from following thee in that charge which thou
hast laid upon me ; neither have I been ambitious and desirous of
this sad and busy task, as thou well knowest, and that which I
have spoken is thy true message, and no other.

31." Thus saith the LORD ; Take heed to yourselves, and bear
no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of
Jerusalem."] — As ye Jews have shamefully broken all my other
commandments, so also this of my sabbath; but now, recollect
yourselves, and reform this abuse : see that you do no servile
work on that day ; bear no burden on that day of the Lord in or
out at the gates of Jerusalem.

So verse 32.

23. " But made their neck stiff," &c.] — But wilfully hardened
their hearts, and resolved to persist in their obstinacy, &c.

25. "Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings
and princes sitting upon the throne of David."] — Then shall your

JEREMIAH XVII. 12.— XIX. 7. . 461

kings and princes be established in this throne of David, and shall
rule over you, and maintain that royal magnificence which is meet
for them amongst you, &c.

XVIII. 12. "There is no hope :" &c.] — See chap. ii. ver. 25.

13. " Ask ye now among the heathen," &c.] — See chap. ii.
ver. i o, ii.

14. " Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh
from the rock of the field ? or shall the cold flowing waters that
come from another place be forsaken?"] — Will any man be so
foolish, as, when he may make use of the pure snow of mount
Lebanon, which he may take up from the clean rock of his own
field, to seek afar off for some dirty puddle? or when he may
have the cool flowing waters from his own crystal spring, to go
lade out of the muddy channel ?

17. "1 will show them the back, and not the face, in the day
of their calamity."] — I will not so much as look at them in
their distress ; but turn my back upon them, as they have done
upon me.

18. "Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against
Jeremiah ; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor coun
sel from the wise, nor -the word from the prophet."] — Let us lay
a plot for Jeremiah : he is a false prophet, doubtless ; for what
soever he saith, it cannot be that God should utterly take his law
from the priest, or his counsel from the wise, or his word from
the prophets ; but so he hath done, so he shall do, if this man
may be heard. Come ; let us raise slanders and accusations
against him, &c.

XIX. 4. "And have filled this place with the blood of inno
cents."] — Have filled this valley with the blood of those children
which they have offered unto Moloch.

6. " Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this
place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of
Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter."] — In this place, wherein
you have pleased your idols with innocent blood, shall your blood
be abundantly shed ; so as this valley shall change the name, and
instead of Tophet, be called A valley of slaughter.

7. " And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem
in this place ; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before
their enemies."] — I will utterly cross the hopes and conceits of
Judah and Jerusalem concerning this very place; for, whereas

462 PARAPHRASE UPON

they thought to have endeared themselves to me the more, by so
zealous oblations of their own children, they shall find how much
I hate this their cruel idolatry by that destruction which I will
bring upon them by the sword of the enemy, &c.

1 2. " Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the
inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet."] — I will
make this whole city of Jerusalem like unto Tophet, a place of
slaughter and burial for the inhabitants.

XX. i. "Now Pashur the son of Iminer the priest, who was
also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah
prophesied these things.11] —Now Pashur, the son of Immer the
priest, who was next in place to the high priest, as being his vicar
or assistant in the government of the temple, heard that Jeremiah,
one of his own order, prophesied these things.

3. " The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magor-
missabib."] — The Lord hath not called thee Pashur, which sig
nifies an enlarging of thy rule, or diffusing of terror and paleness
unto others ; but he hath now called thee, Magor-missabib, that
is, Fear on every side ; which shall hereafter possess thee and
thine.

7. " 0 LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived : thou
art stronger than I, and hast prevailed : I am in derision daily,
every one mocketh me."] — 0 Lord, this people are still crying
out that I am deceived in this my prophecy ; but if I be deceived,

0 ye fond countrymen, know that I am deceived by him that can
neither deceive nor be deceived ; even by thee, O Lord, the God
of truth : it is thou that hast put me upon this task : I could not,

1 durst not withdraw my obedience from thee ; and now I am, for
doing my duty, made a scorn and derision to the world.

8. " For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil ;
because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and
a derision, daily."] — For since I spake from thee, I am so rated
and reviled and persecuted on all sides, that I cannot but complain
and cry out of their intolerable violences and cruelties ; for I do
daily suffer reproach and scornful insultations on all hands for de-
livering^thy message.

9. " Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any
more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning
fire shut up in my bones."] — Then was I ready, in my weakness,
to give in, and to resolve not to speak any more these unpleasing

JEREMIAH XIX. 12.— XXII. 6. 463

things in his name ; but I had not the power to hold in that word
which I had received; it was as a burning fire within my bosom,
yea, in my very bones, &c.

10. " For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side.
Report, say they, and we will report it," &c.] — For I heard the
defaming of many, and especially of him whom I have justly named
Fear on every side, which said, Raise scandals and accusations
against him, and we will second them, &c.

13-15. " Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD : for he hath
delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers. Cursed
be the day," &c.] — I have cause to sing praises unto the Lord,
who hath delivered me from the very mouth of the pit ; out of
that miserable condition, wherein I was overtaken with so weak
and sinful an impatience, as to curse the day wherein I was
born, &c.

XXI. 4. " Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that
are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Baby-
Ion."] — I will utterly disable all your forces, and your weapons
that are in your hands, from hurting or opposing your enemies,
or helping yourselves, &c.

12. "0 house of David, thus saith the LORD; Execute judg
ment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the
hand of the oppressor."] — 0 thou King of Judah, the heir of
David's throne, do thou stir up thyself zealously and faithfully to
do justice in thy place ; deliver and right the oppressed, &c.

13. "Behold, I am against thee, 0 inhabitant of the valley,
and rock of the plain, saith the LORD ; which say, Who shall
come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?"]
— Behold, I am against thee, 0 Jerusalem, who hast vainly trusted
hitherto in thy strength and situation : it is not that defenced
valley wherein a great part of thee towards mount Libanus is
seated, nor the forts of thy plain, that can keep out my power,
or the power of that enemy, the Chaldean, which I shall stir up
against thee.

14. "I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall de
vour all things round about it."] — I will kindle a fire in the forest
of Libanus ; and by the goodly cedars thereof will set Jerusalem
on a flame, which shall devour it to ashes.

XXII. 4. " For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter
in by the gates of this house kings," &c.] — See chap. xvii. 25.

6. " For thus saith the LORD unto the king's house of Judah ;

461 PARAPHRASE UPON

Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon : yet surely I
will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited/1]
— Thus saith the Lord unto the king's house, which is his ancient
court upon the hill of Zion ; As mount Gilead is the prime hill of
all those mountains which go under the name of Lebanon, so art
thou the most eminent and remarkable place in all Judea ; yet
surely thou shalt, through my just judgment, become a very wil
derness.

7. "And they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them
into the fire."] — They shall cut down those choice cedar-beams
wherewith thou art built, and cast them into the fire.

i o. " Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him : but
weep sore for him that goeth away : for he shall return no
more, nor see his native country."] — Never take up lamentations
for them that are slain in the siege, for they are past their pain ;
but weep for those miserable men that are led into captivity, for
they shall endure a lingering death, and never return back to
their home.

13. " Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness,
and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbours service
without wages, and giveth him not for his work;"] — Woe be to
thee, Jehoiakim, which buildest a goodly royal palace out of
the extreme oppressions of my people ; putting them to servile
works for that purpose, without all recompense of wages for their
labour ;

14. " That saith, I will build me a wide house and large cham
bers."] — Which sayest, I will not take up with the old and mean
buildings of my ancestors : I will set up a sumptuous pile, fit for a
king to dwell in, &c.

15. " Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar?
did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice,
and then it was well with him ?"] — Dost thou think to reign ever
the more happily and securely for that thou hast closed up thy
self in cedar ? Thy father, good king Josiah, lived in much con
tent and happiness by doing justice and right unto his subjects,
and prospered in so doing.

18. " They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah
his glory !"] — They shall make no public lamentation for him at
his funeral, as they are wont to do for their former princes.

19. " He shall be buried with the burial of an ass."] — But his
carcass shall be shamefully left unburied ; exposed to fowls of the

JEREMIAH XXII. 7-30. 465

air, or to ravenous beasts ; even as the carcass of an ass, which is
left to rot in a ditch.

20. " Go up to Lebanon, and cry ; and lift up thy voice in
Bashan, and cry from the passages : for all thy lovers are de
stroyed."] — Go up then, O miserable Judah, go up to the highest
mountains that look towards Assyria or Egypt, and call for the
aid of those thine associates in whom thou hast trusted : thou
shalt find small comfort in them : they shall be destroyed together
with thec.

22. " The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers
shall go into captivity."] — All thy great friends and patrons shall
vanish into wind, and thy confederates shall go into captivity, &c.

23. " O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the
cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee,
the pain as of a woman in travail !"] — 0 ye citizens of Jerusalem,
which dwell in goodly houses, made of the cedars of Lebanon, in
how woful a plight shall ye be when your calamity shall come
upon you ! Where will then be your pride and delicacy where
with ye now please yourselves ?

24. " As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoi-
akim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet
would I pluck thee thence ;"] — As I live, saith the Lord, if Jecho-
niah, the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were as near and as
precious to me as the signet upon the right hand useth to be to
him that wears it, yet I would pluck him thence, and cast him
away into captivity.

28. "Is this man Coniah a despised- broken idol? is he a vessel
wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out?" &c.] — Is
this man, Jechoniah, then so vile and base a thing as thou makest
him ? Is he a likely man to be cast out together with his family
and seed into a foreign captivity ?

29. "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD."] — O
ye inhabitants of the earth, take diligent heed to this which I
shall now deliver unto you.

30. " Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man
that shall not prosper in his days : for no man of his seed shall
prosper," &c.] — Take notice, that it is enacted in heaven, that
this Jechoniah shall never have issue that shall sit upon the tem
poral throne of David: no man of his seed, in succeeding times, shall
so prosper as to be king in Judah.

BP. HALL, VOL. III. H h

466 PARAPHRASE UPON

XXIII. 3. " And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of
all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them
again to their folds ; and they shall be fruitful and increase."] —
In that happy time of restoration I will gather the remnant of
mine elect people out of all countries, both them of Judah and of
Israel, into the bosom of my Church ; where they shall be fruitful
of all good works.

4. " And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed
them."] — I will set over them holy, conscionable, able pastors, which
shall feed them with the food of life, &c.

5. " Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise
unto David a righteous Branch," &c.] — See Isaiah iv. 2.

6. cc In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell
safely : and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE
LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."]— In his days, those that
belong to his true Church shall be saved, and delivered from their
spiritual enemies : and he shall be indued with infinite wisdom,
righteousness, and holiness; insomuch as we shall be made the
righteousness of God in him.

7. 8. " They shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought
up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt," &c.] — See
chap. xvi. verse 14 and 15.

9. "Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets;
all my bones shake ; I am like a drunken man, and like a man
whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of
the words of his holiness."] — My heart within me is extremely
grieved and vexed, because of the false prophets which mislead the
people : I am in a great agony and distress for them : I am not
myself for extremity of passion, to think of those heavy judgments
which the Lord hath intended and threatened, in his holy and just
vengeance, to bring upon this people.

10. " For because of swearing the land mourneth ; the pleasant
places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and
their force is not right."] — The land groaneth and mourneth,
under that fearful and ordinary profanation of the name of God,
by false and rash oaths : the pleasant pastures of those plains,
where their flocks had wont to feed, are now dried and parched;
because the men of Judah take wicked courses, and employ their
power to violence and oppression.

1 2. " Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways
in the darkness : they shall be driven on, and fall therein," &c.j

JEREMIAH XXIII. 3.-21. 4G7

— They shall fall and perish in the just punishment of their sins :
as those that in the night time walk in slippery places, so shall
they be driven hastily forward, and fall, and miscarry under the
vengeance.

13. "And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they
prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err."] — If we
shall make comparison betwixt the late prophets of Israel or the
ten tribes with those of Judah and Jerusalem, surely the prophets
of Israel or Samaria were foolish and superstitious ; they pro
phesied in the name of Baal, and caused my people to err through
their false doctrine and idolatrous practices.

14. "I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible
thing : they commit adultery, and walk in lies : they strengthen
also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wicked
ness : they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants
thereof as Gomorrah."] — But I have noted the prophets of Judah
and Jerusalem to be extremely vicious in life, and abominably
filthy : they do not only commit shameful adulteries, and make a
trade of lies, but they hearten and encourage wicked men in their
lewdness ; so as no man can be reclaimed : in regard, therefore,
both of their sin and punishment, they are in no better case to me
than the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah.

15. " Behold, I will feed them with wormwood," &c.] — See
chap. ix. verse 15.

18. " For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath
perceived and heard his word ? who hath marked his word, and
heard it?"] — Fear not the sad predictions of this man, say these
false prophets, for he speaks at random, howsoever he pretends.
Who hath been of counsel with God? what man hath been so
familiar with the Almighty as to take messages from him ?

19. " Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury,
even a grievous whirlwind : it shall fall grievously upon the head
of the wicked."] — Behold, God shall rush suddenly and violently
upon these men ; and shall carry them away like some furious
whirlwind, which cannot be either avoided or resisted.

20. " In the latter days ye shall consider."] — At last, ye shall
by woful experience find all this verified, and shall then bo deeply
affected with it.

21. "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran :"] — I gave
no commission to these prophets, yet they run as of their own
heads : &c.

H h 2

468 PARAPHRASE UPON

22. " But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my
people to hear my words, then they should have turned them
from their evil way," &c.] — If they had received directions and
errands from me, and had delivered them accordingly to my peo
ple, they should have laboured to have turned them from their
lewd courses.

23. "Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God
afar off?"] — What do ye make of me, saith the Lord? Do ye
think me a God that may be eluded or fled from ? Do ye think
that I take notice only of that which is done near hand, and not
of that which is done afar off ?

26. " Yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart."]
— They are their own prophets ; they are not mine ; they have
broached the deceivable imaginations of their own hearts.

28. "The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream;
and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully.
What is the chaff to the wheat ? saith the LORD."] — Away with

.all fraud in this holy service : that prophet which hath but
dreamed, let him confess it is but a dream ; and he that hath
indeed a vision and word from me, let him deliver it as my mes
sage, faithfully ; for what hath this chaff of idle dreams to do
with the pure grain of my visions and revelations ?

29. " Is not my word like as a fire ? saith the LORD ; and like
a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces ?"] — Is not my word
a powerful word ? Is it not as a fire to burn up all the chaff and
stubble ? Is it not as an iron hammer to break the hardest and
most rocky hearts in pieces ?

30. " Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the
LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour."] — I
am against those prophets, saith the Lord, that fraudulently and
cunningly keep back the word of the Lord from the people ; and
that take from each other, by compact and agreement, those pro
phecies, which themselves have falsely devised, and unjustly as
cribed unto God,

31. "Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that
use their tongues, and say, He saith."] — I am against those pro
phets which, by their smooth tongues, persuade the people it is
the word of the Lord which they deliver, when it is nothing but
their own fancy.

33. " And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall
ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD ? thou shalt

JEREMIAH XXIII. 22.— XXIV. 5. 469

then say unto them, What burden ? I will even forsake you, saith.
the LOBD."] — When they shall ask thee in scorn, Now, prophet,
what is the burden from the Lord ? thou shalt answer them,
What is the burden, do ye ask ? Lo, this is the burden ; I will
utterly east you off, saith the Lord.

34. " And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people,
that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I Avill even punish that
man and his house."] — And that man, whether priest or prophet,
or whosoever that shall scornfully ask thee this question, I will
plague both him and his house.

35. " Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every
one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered ? and, What
hath the LORD spoken?"] — Neither would I have, indeed, any
mention amongst men of any burden in my messages ; as if
there were nothing but heavy tidings sent by me to my peo
ple : instead thereof, let them rather say, What hath the Lord
spoken ? &c.

36. " For every man's word shall be his burden."] — Though
there were no prophet to denounce judgment against men, yet
every man would be a prophet to himself: his very conscience
would sufficiently lay before him the just judgment of the Al
mighty.

XXI V. i . " The LORD showed me, and, behold, two baskets of
figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchad
rezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the
son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with
the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought
them to Babylon."] — And now all these threatened judgments,
being accordingly executed upon Judah and Jerusalem, insomuch
as the king of Babylon had now carried away Jeconiah king of
Judah, and the princes of Judah, and their artificers unto Baby
lon ; yet so as that some of the people remained still in the land
under Zedekiah king of Judah, who exalted himself against
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon ; God willing to show the
estate of both those sorts of people, those which yielded to go
into the captivity, and those that resolved to stand out and stay
at home, showed me two baskets of figs, as the emblem and figure
of them both.

5. " Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel ; Like these good
figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive
of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place," &c.] — Thus saith

470 PARAPHRASE UPON

the Lord ; That basket of good figs represents those Jews which
are carried away into the captivity of Babylon ; who, as they are
humbled and bettered by their affliction, so shall be dealt with by
me accordingly.

6. " For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will
brino- them again to this land."] — For I will take special care
of them, both to preserve them there, and to bring them back
again, &c.

8. " And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so
evil; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the
king of Judah, and his princes,, and the residue of Jerusalem,
that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of
Egypt :"] — The other basket of ill figs, which cannot be eaten,
represents those Jews that stay still stubbornly behind, and will
needs follow Zedekiah to rebel against the king of Babylon, and
those that seek harbour in Egypt ; and these shall speed accord
ingly, for I will give them up into the hands of the Chaldees : &c.

XXV. 9. " Behold, I will send and take all the families of the
north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon,
my servant," &c.] — Behold, I will bring against thee the Chal
deans and those other their northern associates, with Nebuchad
nezzar the king of Babylon, whom I shall employ for my execu
tioner in this service, &c.

10. "And the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones,
and the light of the candle."] — I will take from you all mirth and
gladness; yea, all commodities for the use and convenience of
li ving ; so as your life shall be doleful and miserable.

14. " For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves
of them also."] — For those proud and imperious Chaldees, which
held my people in servitude for seventy years, will I give to be a
prey to other great kings and nations, and they shall share their
dominions amongst them, &c.

15. " Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause
all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it."] See Isa.
li. 17. — And do thou denounce all these judgments unto all
those several nations to which I send thee ; and assure them that
they shall all drink of this bitter cup in their due seasons.

1 6. "And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, be
cause of the sword that I will send among them."] — They shall
not be able to avoid those fearful judgments which thou threaten-
est from me; but shall so undergo them, as that they shall be

JEREMIAH XXIV. 6.— XXVI 6. 471

astonished therewith, and grow madly impatient, because of the
destruction that I will send amongst them.

17. "Then took I the cup at the LORD'S hand, and made all
the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me."] — Then
I took the cup at the Lord's hand, and gave it to be pledged of
all those nations to whom the Lord had sent me.

20. " And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land
of Uz."] — To all those mingled people of several nations, which
are hereafter mentioned, &c.

22. " And the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea."]
— And the kings of those countries which are beyond the sea,
whether isles or continent.

27. "Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise
no more, because of the sword which I will send among you."] — >•
Take ye deep of this cup of fury and vengeance : do not think
that a taste or small draught will serve the turn ; no, an easy
revenge will not content me, saith God : ye shall be so punished
and plagued by my just hand, as that ye shall not be yourselves ;
but in an amazed distractedness ye shall fall and perish.

28. "Ye shall certainly drink."] — See verse 16.

30. " The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice
from his holy habitation ; he shall mightily roar upon his habi
tation ; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes,
against all the inhabitants of the earth."] — The Lord shall de
clare from heaven his great fury and indignation against the
wicked : he shall roar like a fierce lion, and shout out aloud, and
call up the Babylonians to their task of slaughter, as they that
tread the grapes do, by their loud cries, encourage each other to
the work.

34. "And ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel."] — As an earthen
vessel, that is curiously wrought, while it holds sound is well es
teemed, but if it once fall and break is worth nothing, and is only
fit to be cast upon the dunghill, so shall ye be unto me.

38. " He hath forsaken his covert, as the lion : for their land
is desolate.""] — He hath forsaken his temple, as a lion forsakes his
den : while he abode in that temple of his, he was as a strong
lion to defend his people; but now he hath given them up to
desolation and spoil, &c.

XXVI. 6. " Then will I make this house like Shiloh."]— See
chap. vii. verse 12.

472 PARAPHRASE UPON

jo. " And sat down in the entry of the new gate of the LORD'S
house."] — And sat down in that new gate of the temple which
king Jotham had built, to appease the tumult, and to hear the
cause of Jeremiah.

13. " The LORD will repent him," &c.] — See Genesis vi. 7.

24. " Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan
was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand
of the people to put him to death."] — But though there was ve
hement importunity used for the putting of Jeremiah to death,
both by the priests and people, yet Ahikam the son of Shaphan
wrought so for him that he was delivered out of their hands.

XXVII. r. "In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the
son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from
the LORD, saying,"] — In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim,
when all things were quiet and successful, this word of the Lord
came to Jeremiah, to be executed afterwards, in the reign of
Zedekiah.

3. " And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of
Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Ty-
rus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers
which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah."] — The
kings of Edom and of Moab, and the king of the Ammonites
and of Tyrus and Zidon, will send ambassadors to Zedekiah, to
treat of a confederacy against the king of Babylon ; do thou
therefore send unto them these fetters and yokes, to let them
know that they shall all come under the yoke and bondage of the
king of Babylon.

6. " The king of Babylon, my servant -,"] — See chap. xxv.
verse 9.

7. " Until the very time of his land come : and then many na
tions and great kings shall serve themselves of him.]" — Until the
time be expired which God hath prefixed for the period of that
monarchy ; and then many nations and great kings shall come,
and divide it amongst them, as a common prey.

12. "Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Baby
lon, and serve him and his people, and live."] — If ye submit
yourselves to the Babylonians, ye shall both be preserved and
in due time restored.

22. "And there shall they be until the day that I visit them,
saith the LORD ; then will I bring them up, and restore them to.

JEREMIAH XXVI. 10.— XXX. 6. 473

this place."] — And there they shall be, until the time of their
restoration and restitution by Cyrus, whom I will stir up to be
gracious unto my people.

XXVIII. 2. "I have broken the yoke of the king of Baby
lon."] — I will deliver and free my people from the captivity and
bondage of the king of Babylon.

3. " Within two full years."] — Within the space of two full
years, &c.

13. "Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD;
Thou hast broken the yokes of wood ; but thou shalt make for
them yokes of iron."] — Thou, 0 Hananiah, hast broken the
yokes of wood : but I am commanded from the Lord to make
them yokes of iron; to signify that this bondage, which thou
saidst should be within two years utterly freed and discharged,
shall be continued in a more grievous and cruel manner than
before, and that without all possibility of escaping or mitigation,
until the prefixed time of seventy years be expired.

XXIX. TI. "For I knoAv the thoughts that I think toward
you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give
you an expected end."] — I know what I have decreed concerning
you ; even favour and deliverance in my appointed time, and not
extirpation and destruction ; so as ye shall at the last have that
happy issue which ye desire and expect.

17. " And will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten,
they are so evil."] — See chap. xxiv. verse 8.

26. " For every man that is mad, and maketh himself a pro
phet," &c.] — For every one that in a frantic humour takes upon
him to be a prophet, and delivers his own distracted fancies for
visions from God, &c.

XXX. 3. " For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will
bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith
the LORD : and I will cause them to return to the land that I
gave to their fathers."] — Howsoever God will not so suddenly
free his people from their captivity as is falsely foretold by some
flattering prophets, yet surely he hath set the time wherein he
will most certainly accomplish it, &c.

6. " Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with
child ? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins,
as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness ?"] —
It is not for a man, we know, to travail with child ; how then is
it, that the men hold their hands on their loins, and move their

474 PARAPHRASE UPON

bodies in a woful complaint of pain, as if they were women in
the very throes of their delivery ; and all faces, by the paleness
thereof, bewray fear and astonishment ?

7 . "It is even the time of Jacob's trouble ; but he shall be
saved out of it."] — It is the time of the most grievous trouble and
calamity to the posterity of Jacob ; but at last it shall end well,
and they shall be delivered from it.

9. " But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their
king, whom I will raise up unto them."] — They shall serve the
Lord their God, and Christ his Son, the successor of David, in his
spiritual government, whom I will in due time send into the world.

12. "For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruised incurable,1'1 &c.]
— Thine affliction, in regard of any human help, is utterly reme
diless, &c.

13. " There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be
bound up : thou hast no healing medicines."] — There is none, so
much as to solicit for thy cure and redress ; nor any means left
whereby it may be in man's reason effected.

14. " All thy lovers have forgotten thee ; they seek thee not ;
for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy."] — All those
confederate nations that professed friendship to thee have quite
forgotten thee ; for I have deeply afflicted thee by the cruel hand
of the Chaldeans, &c.

17. " Because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion,
whom no man seeketh after.'"] — Because they have insulted upon
thy misery, and despised thee, as an outcast and forlorn people,
saying, This is that goodly hill of Zion, once the pride, now the
scorn of the world.

XXXI. 2. " Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left
of the sword found grace in the wilderness ; even Israel, when I
went to cause him to rest."] — The people which were left of the
sword in the siege and sacking of Jerusalem found favour in
the land of their captivity, even the remainder of the Jews,
when I took order for their settling for the time in the land of
Chaldea.

4. " Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, 0 virgin
of Israel : thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt
go forth in the dances of them that make merry."] — O Jerusalem,
thou shalt be built again, and shalt have again minstrelsy and
mirth within thy walls : 0 my Church, thou shalt be happily re
stored, and filled with true spiritual joy.

JEREMIAH XXX. 7.— XXXI. 15. 475

5. " Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria :
the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things/'] —
Those fruitful hills of Samaria, which have lien long waste, shall
be stored with excellent vines ; and those that plant them shall
eat the grapes plentifully, and make no spare of them.

6. " For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the
mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto
the LORD our God."] — Yea, not only those of Judah, but even
those of the ten tribes of Israel, which have been long dispersed
and neglected, shall be gathered together to Jerusalem, and be
encouraged by their spiritual watchmen to join together in sub
mission to the true Church.

8. " Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and
gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the
blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth
with child together."] — Behold, I will bring them back again
from Babylon, and fetch them up from all coasts, and will make
them a type of my Evangelical Church ; into which I will call all
sorts of persons, even those that are most full and most conscious
of their own infirmities, &c.

9. " I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a
straight way, wherein they shall not stumble : for I am a father
to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn."] — I will lead them aright
by the guidance of my word, in the safe and happy ways of life,
holily and inoffensively ; for I am a father to my faithful ones.

] 2. " Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion,
and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat,
and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of
the herd : and their soul shall be as a watered garden ; and they
shall not sorrow any more at all."] — Therefore they shall come,
and sing in the great congregation and most eminent assemblies ;
and shall meet cheerfully together, to enjoy the holy things of
God, his word and sacraments ; and their soul shall be refreshed,
as a new watered garden in a drought; and they shall have no
more cause of dejection and hopeless sorrow.

15. " Thus saith the LORD ; A voice was heard in Ramah,
lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her chil
dren refused to be comforted for her children, because they were
not."] — Methinks I hear a voice in the high place or mountain
(whence it may sound farthest), a voice of mourning and lamenta
tion ; Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, seems to

476 PARAPHRASE UPON

mourn for her children, those of Ephraim and the other tribes,
long since desolated ; and will not admit of any comfort, because
they are scattered and vanished, without all hope of restoration
or return.

1 6. " Thus saith the LORD ; Refrain thy vioce from weeping,
and thine eyes from tears : for thy work shall be rewarded, saith
the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy."]
— Thus saith the Lord to mourning Rachel ; Refrain thy weeping
for those sons of thy womb, the distressed Israelites ; for that
desolated region shall nourish again : thou shalt receive comfort
after thy sorrow, and those children of thine shall return from the
land of their captivity.

17. "And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy
children shall come again to their own border."] — In that end,
which God hath prefixed to thy sorrows and sufferings, there is
hope, yea assurance, that thy children shall come again to their
native country.

1 8. "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus;
Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccus
tomed to the yoke," &c.] — I have heard those of the ten tribes be
moaning themselves after their captivity, thus : Thou hast afflicted
me, O Lord, and I am humbled : I was as a wild young bullock,
unaccustomed to the yoke ; but now, thou hast caused me to stoop
unto it, &c.

19. "Surely after that I was turned, I repented."] — Surely
after that thou hadst wrought upon me, and showed me my sin,
I repented, &c.

20. "Is Ephraim my dear son ? is he a pleasant child ? for since
I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still : therefore
my bowels are troubled for him ; I will surely have mercy upon
him, saith the LORD."] — Would any man think that Israel thus
afflicted, and, as it were neglected, were my dear son ? that he
were a child wherein I take pleasure and delight ? Yet he is so ;
and, howsoever I have dealt severely with him, both in my words
and actions, yet I do in mercy still remember him, and the bowels
of my compassion yearn towards him.

21. "Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps : set thine
heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest :
turn again.11] — Thou shalt return to thine own land, 0 my people;
and therefore set thee up waymarks as thou goest : heap up stones
for the direction of thy passage through the wilderness ; and set

JEREMIAH XXXI. 16-29. 477

thy thoughts to remember all the turnings of the way, and address
thyself towards thy return, &c.

22. "How long wilt thou go about, 0 thou backsliding daughter?
for the LOKD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman
shall compass a man."] — How long wilt thou waver and stagger in
thy belief, 0 thou rebellious Israel? for the Lord, which hath
undertaken this deliverance, shall do a strange and marvellous
thing in the earth : though the strength of the enemy be great
and terrible, and the weakness of my people is noted and despic
able, so as they are but as women in comparison of their manly
adversaries, yet these weak eifeminate Jews shall prevail against
those stout and manly Chaldeans.

23. " When I shall bring again their captivity ; The LORD bless
thee, 0 habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.""] — When
I shall have brought them back from their captivity, and planted
them again in their land of Judah, they shall, with joyful acclama
tions, acknowledge the goodness of God, and pray for a continu
ance and increase of mercy ; saying, The Lord go on to bless and
prosper thee, O Jerusalem, which now, from thy ruins and deso
lation, art raised up to be an habitation of justice ; and bless thy
temple, wherein now holiness shall reinhabit.

26. " Upon this I awaked, and beheld ; and my sleep was sweet
unto me."] — Upon these sweet and comfortable visions, wherein
the Lord revealed to me his good pleasure concerning his Church,
I awaked ; and was exceedingly cheered up and delighted with
the remembrance thereof.

27. " Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow
the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man,
and with the seed of beast."] — I will cause my Church, which now
seems to lie waste and barren, to yield so plentiful an increase of
converts to me, as the rich ground doth of the seed which is sown
in the furrows of it ; and will also multiply unto it all outward
helps, for the maintenance and strength thereof.

29. " In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have
eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge."] —
In those days, after I shall have humbled my people and restored
and comforted them again, they shall give me the praise of my
justice and mercy ; and shall not be ready to murmur against my
proceedings as too severe and unjust, so as they have been apt
to do, in saying, The fathers have offended, and the children
are punished :

478 PARAPHRASE UPON

30. "But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man
that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge/'] — But
shall willingly acknowledge, that every man of them hath smarted
for his own iniquity ; and hath had sins enow of his own to war
rant God's proceedings against him.

31. "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make
a new covenant with the house of Israel."] — Behold, the days of
the Messiah are coming, wherein I will make a new covenant
with my Church,

32. " Not according to the covenant that I made with their
fathers."] — -Not according to the form of that legal covenant
which I made with their fathers, &c.

33. " But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the
house of Israel ; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my
law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts ; and will
be their God."] — But this shall be my covenant of grace with
them under the Gospel, which shall bring with it the power of
regeneration, and salvation by Christ : in those days of mine
evangelical Church I will work mightily in the hearts of my
people, and will bring them, by the inoperation of my Spirit, to
the obedience of my law ; which being formerly written in tables
of stone, shall now be engraven so in the hearts of men, that they
shall, out of love and willing obedience, frame themselves there
unto, &c.

34. " And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour,
and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD : for they
shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of
them, saith the LORD/'] — And there shall be so clear a light of
my Gospel shining forth unto men, as that they shall not so much
need the help of others1 instruction in the grounds and principles
of religion, but shall be enlightened from God with a competent
measure of knowledge, even from the meanest and weakest novice
in Christianity unto the greatest proficient therein, &c.

35. " And the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a
light by night."] — Hath ordained a due, constant, and regular
motion of the moon and stars for a light by night.

36. " If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the
LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation
before me for ever."] — If that course which I have set in nature
for the motions of the heavens may be altered, then may it be
possible for my Church to fail upon earth.

JEREMIAH XXXI. 30.— XXXII. 14. 479

37. " If heaven, &c. I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for
all that they have done, saith the LORD."] — There can be nothino-
more impossible than that I should utterly cast off my people, not
withstanding their ill deservings of me, so as that not a remnant
of them should be preserved.

38, 39. " Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the city
shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel unto the
gate of the corner : &c. And the whole valley of the dead
bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of
Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall
be holy unto the LORD."] — The days shall come, saith the Lord,
that this city of Jerusalem, which yet stands in her full glory,
shall, after the raising and destruction of it, be fully built up
again, in all the whole compass of it, from the one end to the
other; and, which is thereby typified, my evangelical Church
shall be built upon the ruins of the Jewish in a complete form,
and be wholly consecrated to the Lord.

So also verse 40.

XXXII. 5. " There shall he be until I visit him, saith the
LORD."] — There shall he be until the time that I shall put an
end to his captivity by death.

8. " Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is
in the country of Benjamin : for the right of inheritance is thine,
and the redemption is thine ; buy it for thyself. Then I knew
that this was the word of the LORD."] — Buy my field, I pray
thee, that is in Anathoth : it is true indeed, that the enemy is
now in possession of it, so as no man may or dare look forth to
wards it; yet out of an assurance that it shall in due time be
freed and redelivered, do thou give me money for it beforehand ;
since thou art the next of kin, and the purchase pertains unto
thee by the law.

9. " And I bought the field of Hanamcel my uncle's son, that
was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen
shekels of silver."] — And accordingly I bought the field of Hana-
meel, my cousin-german, that was in Anathoth, and paid him the
money for it.

14. " And this evidence which is open ; and put them in an
earthen vessel, that they may continue many days."] — Lay up
these evidences sure in an earthen vessel, where they may be
kept from rotting for a long time ; as those whereof I shall have

480 PARAPHRASE UPON

most certain use hereafter : for this land shall be in due time re
possessed, &c.

1 8. "And recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the
bosom of their children after them.1''] — Thou punishest the sins of
the fathers in those children wherein they do still live ; who being
as it were parts of their parents, it cannot be but their parents
must justly, in temporal things, suffer in them.

24. " Behold the mounts, they are come unto the city to take
it."] — Behold those mounts, which are cast up for the siege of
Jerusalem, &c.

33. " And they have turned unto me the back, and not the
face."] — They have utterly neglected me, and wilfully refused to
give car and respect to that which I delivered unto them, &c.

34. " But they set their abominations in the house, which is
called by my name, to defile it."] — They have set up their abo
minable altars to their idols, in the temple which is consecrated to
my name, to defile it.

39. " I will give them one heart, and one way/' &c.] — I will
unite them, both in their judgments, and in their affections, and
in their practices ; so as they shall happily agree together, both
to think and to do the same things.

44. " Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences,
and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in
the places about Jerusalem."] — There shall be an ordinary course
of bargains and purchases ; and all those forms of legal transactions
which are wont to be in use upon these occasions.

XXXIII. 13. "In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of
the vale, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benja
min, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah,
shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that telleth
them, saith the LORD."] — In those cities which are built upon the
hills, and those which are low built in the valleys, even in all the
region of Judea and Samaria, shall be a peaceable habitation of
my people ; so as the shepherd may there, in their fields and pas
tures, securely feed his flocks, and tell their number at his own
leisure.

14. " Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will per
form that good thing which I have promised unto the house of
Israel and to the house of Judah."] — Behold, the days draw
on, wherein I will perform those gracious promises of mercy

JEREMIAH XXXII. 18.— XXXIV. 17. 481

and deliverance, which I have made to my people of Judah and
Israel.

15. "At that time will I cause the Branch of righteousness to
grow up unto David;" &c.]— See Isaiah iv. 2.

17. "For thus saith the LORD ; David shall never want a man
to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel."]— He that is the
true Son of David shall evermore sit in the throne, and rule and
reign over his Church to the end of the world.

1 8. " Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before
me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to
do sacrifice continually."] — Neither shall there be any interrup
tion of that perfect priesthood which shall be performed by that
all-sufficient Mediator, who shall offer up a full sacrifice to his
Father, and present our prayers and spiritual sacrifices unto
God.

20. " If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my cove
nant of the night," &c.] — See chap. xxxi. ver. 36.

XXXIV. 5. "But thou shalt die in peace : and with the burn
ings of thy fathers, the former kings which were before thee, so
shall they burn odours for thee," &c.] — But thou shalt die of thy
fair death, not violent, but natural ; and shalt be honourably
buried, after a princely manner, with store of sweet odours burnt
about thy coffin, and in the vault where thou shalt be laid.

8. " After that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with
all the people which ivere at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto
them."] — After that king Zedekiah, being admonished of this
point of the law, had dealt with the people effectually, to dismiss
those of their own nation out of their service, in the end of the
seventh year, according to the prescript of the law ; and procla
mation was made hereof accordingly.

10. "Then they obeyed, and let them go."] — They yielded for
the time, and gave way for the performance of this edict ; and
gave freedom to their Jewish servants.

11. "But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and
the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought
them into subjection for servants and for handmaids."] — But
afterwards they repented of their good act, and injuriously re
called their lately dismissed servants and handmaids into their
former servitude.

17. " Behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to
the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine."]— Behold, I do

BP. HALL, VOL. III. I i

482 PARAPHRASE UPON

give full liberty to the sword, and to the pestilence, and to the
famine, to seize upon you, &c.

1 8. "And I will give the men that have transgressed my cove
nant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which
they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and
passed between the parts thereof."] — Ye know ye made a cove
nant with me, in that ancient solemn manner that was used by
your father Abraham ; wherein you, dividing the calf into halves,
passed between the two halves of it, wishing by way of execration
to be so divided if you did not observe this promise and covenant
of yours : and now ye have palpably broken this part of your
covenant with me ; therefore I will give the transgressors hereof
into the hand of their enemies.

21. " Into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which are
gone up from you."] — Into the hand of the king of Babylon's
army, which is now, for the time, departed from your siege, to go
up against Egypt, but, however ye have vainly imagined, shall
return to your cost. See chap, xxvii. ver. 5.

XXXV. 4. " And I brought them into the house of the LORD,
into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a
man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes."] — And
I brought some of the house of Jonadab the son of Rechab into
the court of the temple, and led them into one of those chambers
which are appointed therein for the priests and Levites ; even
into the lodging of one of the holiest of the priests, next to the
chamber of the chief governor of the temple, &c.

5. " And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites,
pots full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine."]
— And in that holy place I did set before those sons of Rechab
pots of wine, and cups ; and, as of my own motion, wished them
to drink wine.

6. " For Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us,
saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for
ever."] — For Jonadab the son of Rechab, three hundred years
ago, charged all us that should come of his loins, Ye shall drink
no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever.

7. " That ye may live many days in the land where ye be
strangers."] — That ye may live long in the land where your fore
fathers the Kenites were, and ye now are strangers.

XXXVI. 5. I am shut up."] — See chap, xxvii. verse 4. I must
keep close, upon the command of the Lord, and not stir forth.

JEREMIAH XXXIV. 18.— XXXVIII. 7, 8. 483

22. " Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month :
and there ivas a fire on the hearth burning before him."] — Now
the king sat in the winterhouse; for it was in the month of
November, when the season grew to be somewhat cold ; and there
was a fire on the hearth burning before him.

26. " But the LORD hid them."] — But the Lord raised up
means of hiding and concealing him from the fury of king Je-
hoiakim.

XXXVII. i. "Instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim."] —
Instead of Jechoniah the son of Jehoiakim, who took upon him
to reign for three months, and then yielded to the king of
Babylon.

12. "Then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into
the land of Benjamin, to separate himself thence in the midst of
the people."] — Then Jeremiah the prophet, taking the advantage
of the removal of the Chaldean army from the siege of Jerusalem,
went forth with the rest of his countrymen to go into his native
place, in the tribe of Benjamin, to live apart there for a time.

13. "Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans."] — Thou hast
hitherto set out the power and future success of the Chaldees,
and now thou art secretly slinking away to them.

21. "Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should
commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they
should give him daily a piece of bread out of the baker's street,
until all the bread of the city were spent."] — Then Zedekiah the
king, being moved with some compassion towards Jeremiah, com
manded him to a larger custody, where he had some more liberty ;
and gave charge that he should have, notwithstanding the ex
treme scarcity of the time, every day a piece of the ordinary and
common bread of the city allowed unto him, &c.

XXXVIII. 4. " He weakerieth the hands of the men of war
that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speak
ing such words unto them."] — He discourageth the soldiers
within the city, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that they
have no heart to make resistance unto the king of Babylon, &c.

5. " For the king is not he that can do any thing against
you."] — For my power, you see, is grown into disregard amCngst
you : you have the law in your own hands.

7, $. " The king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin ; Ebed-
melech went forth out of the king's house, and spake to the
king.1'] — When the king was sitting in the public place of judi-

i i 2

tst PARAPHRASE UPON

oaturo, Kbod-molech went purposely out of the eourt unto him,
saving, £c.

aa. " And those iwmcu shall say, Thy friends have set theo
on, and have prevailed against thee : thy feet are sunk in the
miro, and they are turned away back/'] — And those women
shall make exeuses for thoe, and say. Thy princes and followers
have set theo on to do that which thou wonldst otherwise never
have attempted, namely, to revolt from the king of Babylon:
their power and importunity hath thus swayed thee, and through
their solicitation thou art brought into this miserable inconve
nience, and they have themselves also revolted.

XXXIX. g. "'And those that fell away, that fell to him, with
the rest of the people that remained."] — Those, that stirred up
Zodekiah to this defection, and joined with him in that revolt,
together with the rest of the people of any better fashion.

14. " And committed him unto Gedaliah, &c., that ho should
carry him home: so he dwelt among tho people."] — He com
manded Gedaliah, to whom was committed the chief rule of all tho
affairs of Jerusalem, by Nebuchadnezzar, that he should take
Jeremiah home to his house: so Jeremiah lived at large, in free
liberty amongst the people.

17. "Thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of
whom thou art afraid."] —Thou shalt not be delivered into the
hands of the courtiers of Zedekiah, whose envy thou hast drawn
upon theo for my sake.

18. " Hut thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou
hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD."] — Thy life shall be
reserved safe unto thee, whatever become of thy outward estate ;
and shall be given thee as a reward of thy kindness to niy pro
phets, and religious confidence in me. saith the Lord.

XL. i, 4, "The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD,
after that Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard had let him go
from Ramah. when he had taken him being bound in chains
among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Ju-
dah, &c. Behold. I loose thee this day from the chains," &c.j —
After this charge given concerning the custody of Jeremiah, yet
he was, amongst the other captives, which were carrying away
towards Babylon, driven forward in his chains as far as Rarnah ;
at which (lace Xebuiarxulan, the captain of the guard, to*k no
tice of him. and from thence gave him his liberty, and free option
either to return or to go forward.

JEREMIAH XXX VIII. 22.— XLIII. 13. 485

7. " Now when all the captains of the forces which were in the
fields, even they arid their men, heard that the king of Babylon
had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land."] —
Now when those captains of the Jews, which had before saved
themselves by flight upon the first report of the approach of the
Chaldean arrny which were dispersed in the country, heard that
the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor.

XLI. 5. "Even fourscore men, having their beards shaven,
and their clothes rent, arid having cut themselves, with offerings
and incense in their hand, to bring them to the house of the
LOUD."] — Fourscore of those Jews, which remained still in the
land of Judca, came in a mournful fashion to condole the late
misery of their brethren, arid their whole land ; and brought with
them oblation arid incense, to offer unto the Lord in his temple.

6. tf Weeping all along as he went."] — Counterfeiting a mutual
sorrow with thorn, and expressing it very passionately all the
way.

XLII. 6. "Whether it be good, or whether it be evil,"] —
Whether it be pleasing to us, or whether it be grievous and dis
pleasing, we will be sure to do it, &c.

10. " For I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you."]
— See Genesis vi. 7.

XLIII. 6. " And Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of
Neriah."] — And, amongst the rest, Johanan took with him, by
strong hand, Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Ne-
riah, down into Egypt.

10. "I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Baby
lon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I
have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them."] —
Nebuchadnezzar, whom I employ in the executions of my judg
ments upon divers nations ; and I will cause him to reign over
this land of Egypt, and to erect his throne in this court and city
of Tahpanhes.

12. " And he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a
shepherd putteth on his garment ;"]— And he shall go forth
thence, richly laden and arrayed with the wealthy spoils of
Egypt ; as a shepherd in a bleak wind wraps his cloak round
about him, and so walketh compassed with that unwieldy gar
ment, £c.

13. "He shall break also the images of Beth-shemesh, that u
in the land of Egypt."]— And he shall break down all the images

486 PARAPHRASE UPON

in the stately temples of Heliopolis, which is the mother city of
that infamous superstition, &e.

14. " For none shall return but such as shall escape/'] —
None shall return into the land of Judah, but such as shall
speedily withdraw themselves out of Egypt, and make an escape
from this wicked Johanan, who hath brought us hither.

17. "To burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour
out drink offerings/' &c.] — To burn incense to the sun or moon*
and to offer sacrifices unto them, &c.

19. " Did we — pour out these drink offerings unto her, without
our husbands?"] — Did not our husbands both aid and animate
us in those sacrifices which we thus offered?

26. " I have sworn by my great name, saith the LORD, that
my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of
Judah in all the land of Egypt."] — I will not endure that so
much as an outward profession shall be made of my name and
worship by any man of Judah in the land of Egypt.

XLV. 3. " Thou didst say, Woe is me now ! for the LORD
hath added grief to my sorrow.11] — Thou madest great moan for
the extreme misery of thy people ; and criedst out, Woe is me,
for the grievous calamity that is come upon us ! &c.

4. " Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and
that which I have planted I will pluck up, even this whole land.11]
— I have determined to execute my decreed judgments against
this whole land : it is not for thee to repine, or be too much moved,
at this just severity.

5. "And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them
not : for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD :
but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither
thou goest."] — And is it time for thee now, in this extreme deso
lation and danger of all things, to be casting for any great matters
for thyself? for, behold, I will bring a common destruction upon
this people round about ; and thou mayest think thiyself well dealt
with, if thou canst go away with thy life : this is the best booty
that thou canst hope for, which way soever thou goest.

XL VI. 6. " Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man
escape ; they shall stumble, and fall toward the north by the river
Euphrates."] — Swiftness of foot shall not avail the nimble ; neither
shall strength avail the mighty man : they shall be cut off and
fall by the hand of the Babylonians.

7- "Who is this that cometh up as a flood, whose waters are

JEREMIAH XLIV. 14.— XLVI. 14. 437

moved as the rivers ?"]— What mighty monarch is this that cometh
in like a swelling flood, and threats to sweep all before him like an
impetuous torrent ?

8. " Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like
the rivers ; and he saith, I will go up, and will cover the earth ;
I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof."] — It is even
the proud king of Egypt, that riseth up thus like a flood, and
swelleth like a furious river ; who is ready to say, I will go up
to Chaldea itself, and will, by my powerful inundation, cover all
the face of the earth ; I will destroy Babylon, and kill the inha
bitants of it.

9. " Come up, ye horses ; and rage, ye chariots ; and let the
mighty men come forth ; the Ethiopians and the Libyans, that
handle the shield; and the Lydians that handle and bend the
bow/'] — Mount on your horses, O ye Egyptians ; and drive your
chariots with a furious speed : let our mighty associates of Ethi
opia and Lydia, &c. come forth, and join their invincible forces
with ours.

10. "For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of
vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries :" &c.] —
For this is the day wherein the Lord God of hosts hath a great
slaughter to be made, and much effusion of man's blood, in the
country of Chaldea, by the river Euphrates.

IT. " Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter
of Egypt : in vain shalt thou use many medicines ; for thou shalt
not be cured."] — Go, ye vain Egyptians, go up to Gilead, and
take thence good store of balm with you, to cure the wounds
which ye shall receive of the Chaldees ; and yet, these precious
applications shall be to no purpose, for thou shalt be past all pos
sibility of curing.

12. "The nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry hath
filled the land : for the mighty man hath stumbled against the
mighty, and they are fallen both together."]— All the nations
round about have taken notice of thy shameful flight, and thine
outcries have filled the land ; for in that numerous army of thine,
•when it was once disordered and put to flight, one of thy mighty
men stumbled upon another, and hindered each other in their
escape, so as they are fallen together under the sword of the
enemy.

14. " Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish
in Noph and in Tahpanhes : say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thee;

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for the sword shall devour round ahout thee."] — Let it be openly
declared and published in all the coasts of Egypt; in Migdol, east
ward ; in Noph, to the south ; and in Tahpanhes, to the north ;
that the Babylonian shall come in upon them : bid them look to
themselves and stand upon their guard, for danger and destruction
is near unto them.

1 6. "He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and
they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to
the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword."] — The
foreign soldiers which were drawn into this war shall fall out one
with another ; and, whether in their mutinies or in their flight,
shall be an occasion of one another's slaughter ; and, when it is
too late, shall say, Let us away from hence, and return to our
own country, and get us out of the reach of this destroying sword
of the Babylonians.

17. "They did cry there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a
noise ; he hath passed the time appointed."] — For, as for this
Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, whom we came to aid in his wars,
he is nothing but words ; he talks and brags much, but he performs
nothing; he undertakes and disappoints, so as no trust is to be
given to him.

1 8. " Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel
by the sea, so shall he come."] — Mount Tabor is not more surely
fixed among the rest of the mountains, nor Carmel is more unre
in ovably seated upon the seacoast, than this word of mine is
firmly fixed in heaven, and shall undoubtedly be performed : the
king of Babylon shall come against Egypt.

20. " Egypt is like a very fair heifer, but destruction cometh ;
it cometh out of the north."] — Egypt is wild and wanton with
her wealth and pleasure, as some young fair heifer never used to
the yoke; but destruction is now coming upon her from the
Chaldees.

22. "The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall
march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers
of wood."] — They shall no more loudly bellow out, but shall be
glad, like a serpent, to creep into holes, and by their secret hiss
ings and silent complaints to express their sorrows ; for the Chal
dean army shall march against them, and shall utterly overthrow
them.

23. " They shall cut down her forest, saith the LORD, though
it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grass-

JEREMIAH XLVI. 16.— XLVI1I. 5. 489

hoppers, and are innumerable."] — If Egypt be as a thick well-
grown forest, they shall cut down all the goodly trees therein,
although they be indeed so many that they are past numbering.

25. " Behold, I will punish the multitude of INTo, and Pha
raoh."] — Behold, I will punish that populous city of Alexandria,
the rich staple of Egypt ; and Pharaoh, &c.

XLYII. 2. " Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall
be an overflowing flood."] — Behold, the Chaldeans arise out of
the north like mighty waters ; and with their swelling flood shall
overflow the land of the Philistines, &c.

3. " At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong
horses, at the rushing of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his
wheels, the fathers shall not look back to their children for feeble
ness of hands."] — Men shall be so amazed and affrighted with the
fearful noise of his army, the stamping of his horses and rattling
of his chariots, that the fathers shall not so much as find time to
look back to their children, in the haste of their flight.

5. " Baldness is come upon Gaza ; Ashkelon is cut off ivith the
remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?"] —
Extreme mourning is come upon Gaza, and all those maritime
parts of the country of the Philistines ; insomuch as they tear
their hair and cut their flesh for sorrow.

XLVIII. i. "Against Moab thus saith the LORD of hosts, the
God of Israel ; Woe unto Nebo ! for it is spoiled : Kiriathaim is
confounded and taken : Misgab is confounded and dismayed."] —
Howsoever Moab, an ancient enemy, though near in blood to
Israel, may prosper for a time, after that both Israel and Judah
are overthrown, yet he shall not escape the severe hand of God ;
woe therefore unto the chief cities of the Moabites ; to Nebo, to
Kirjath-jearim, and to Misgab, for they all shall be destroyed !

2. " There shall be no more praise of Moab : in Heshbon they
have devised evil against it : come, and let us cut it off from being
a nation."] —The like ruin shall befall to the rest of their cities, to
Heshbon and to Madmena: the Chaldees have resolved and
threatened to cut off Moab from being a nation, &c.

5. " For in the going up of Luhith continual weeping shall go
up ; for in the going down of Horonaim the enemies have heard a
cry of destruction."] — In the mountains and valleys shall be no
thing but howling and desolation ; while the Moabites climb up
the hill to the high-seated city of Luhith, and while they pass
down to the plain of Horonaim, they shall not be able to contain

490 PARAPHRASE UPON

themselves from lamentation,, so as their very enemies shall hear
their womanish and fearful ejulatlons.

6. " Flee, save your lives., and be like the heath in the wil
derness."] —Away, and flee, if ye may, 0 ye Moabites : save your
lives by a speedy flight ; and get you into the wilderness, and
live there, though ye be but like the shrubby heath, that hath a
low and obscure being in the desert.

7. "And Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests
and his princes together."] — And Chemosh, thy false god, unto
whose aid thou hast trusted, shall go into captivity with thee ;
and his priests, and those idolatrous princes that worship him,
ye shall all go together.

10. " Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceit
fully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood."]
— And now, 0 ye Chaldeans, bestir you in this slaughter : lay
about you, and spare none : it is God's revenge which ye do now
execute : cursed be ye if ye slacken your hands and keep back
your sword from blood.

IT. "Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath
settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to
vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity : therefore his taste
remained in him, and his scent is not changed/5] — While Israel
was in continual exercise and correction, Moab hath a long time
taken his ease ; and hath been as a vessel of strong wine, that
hath been long settled upon his lees, not at all racked or drawn
out into another vessel ; so as he hath his full vigour and verdure
of his long-continued pleasure and felicity still in him, without all
diminution or change.

12. "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that
I will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander,
and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles."] — I will
therefore send enemies upon Moab, which shall alter the case
with him; which shall broach these their settled vessels, and
draw them out into a grievous captivity, and break their cask in
pieces.

13. "And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house
of Israel was ashamed of Beth-el their confidence.'1]— And Moab
shall be ashamed of his god Chemosh, as the house of Israel was
ashamed of their calves in Dan and Beth-el wherein they vainly
trusted.

17. " How is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod !"]

JEREMIAH XLVIII. 6-30. 491

— How is this strong and glorious nation, on whom we leaned as
the staff of our confidence, broken in pieces, &c.

] 8. " Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from
thy glory, and sit in thirst ; for the spoiler of Moab shall come
upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds."] — And thou,
O Dibon, the fair city of Moab, come down from thy glory,
and take up with the lot of thy neighbours ; thirst, distress,
destruction.

19. "0 inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and espy ; ask
him that fleeth, and her that escapeth, and say, What is done?"]
— And ye inhabitants of Aroer, who durst not trust to your
walls, but are fled into the desert, run to the wayside, and ask of
the still fleeing passengers, even of the women that have escaped,
what the Chaldees have done to your forsaken walls and houses.

21. "And judgment is come upon the plain country; upon
Holon, and upon Jahazah, and upon Mephaath."] — And judgment
is come upon all the parts of the land of Moab, both the moun
tainous tracts thereof and the plains ; upon all the several cities
that appertain thereunto, as upon Holon, Jahazah, Mephaath, &c.

So verse 22, 23, 24.

25. " The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken,
saith the LORD."] — The pride of Moab is cut off, and the strength
of it is broken, saith the Lord.

26. "Make ye him drunken : for he magnified himself against
the LORD : Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall
be in derision."] — Lay deep and grievous afflictions upon him, O
ye Chaldees : let him drink largely of your vengeance, for he
lifted himself up against the Lord : let him be overfilled with
sorrow and anguish, and be exposed to the scorn and derision of
the world.

27. "For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found
among thieves ? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for
joy."] — For was not Israel a scorn and derision unto thee ? yea,
was he not causelessly so ? for what had he offended thee ? how
ever guilty he were in his carriage to mewards, yet to thee he
was inoffensive ; notwithstanding thou insultedst in his fall, and
joyedst in this miscarriage.

28. " O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in
the rock."] — 0 ye Moabites, run from your cities and defenced
places, and hide yourselves in the holes of the rocks, &c.

30. " I know his wrath, saith the LORD ; but it shall not be

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so ; his lies shall not so effect it."] —I know his great stomach,
and his proud brags, but it shall not be so with him as he ima-
gineth : his great words and presumptuous undertakings shall
not carry it.

32. "0 vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping
of Jazer : thy plants are gone over the sea, they reach even to
the sea of Jazer."] — 0 thou city and religion of Sibmah, famous
for the excellency and fruitfulness of thy vines, I will weep for
thy destruction as I wept before for the vastation of Jazer thy
neighbour : thy citizens are transplanted and carried over the sea;
they are carried down to be shipped at the port of Jazer, &c.

34. " From the cry of Heshbon even unto Elealeh. — As an
heifer of three years old, &c.; for the waters also of Nimrim shall
be desolate."] — See Isaiah xv. 4, 5, 6.

37. "For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped :
upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sack
cloth."] — There shall be all the signs and effects of an extreme
mourning all over the coasts of Moab : every head shall be
shaven, every beard clipt, every skin slashed, and every of their
loins covered with sackcloth.

38. " There shall be lamentation generally upon all the house
tops/1 &c.] — See Isaiah xv. 8.

40. " For thus saith the LORD ; Behold, he shall fly as an
eagle, and shall spread his wings over Moab."] — The Chaldean
shall come swiftly upon him, as an eagle upon his prey, and shall
spread his wings over Moab.

43. " Fear, and the pit, and the snare, shall be upon thee,"
&c.] — See Isaiah xxiv. 17.

45. " They that fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon be
cause of the force : but a fire shall come forth out of Heshbon,
and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and shall devour the corner
of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones."] —
They that fled thought they should find good shelter in the
strong forts of Heshbon, but they shall be deceived ; for, so far
shall Heshbon be from being able to defend itself, that the de
struction which shall begin there shall reach unto all the utmost
parts of the dominions of Moab, and shall light upon the head of
those insolent undertakers that were the cause of these wars and
tumults.

46. "The people of Chemosh perisheth."]— The people that
worshipped their false god Chemosh perisheth, &c.

JEREMIAH XLVIII.32.— XLIX. 12. 493

XLIX. i . " Hath Israel no sons ? hath he no heir ? why then
doth their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities?"]
— Hath Israel no posterity at all to inherit his lands ? How comes
it then that the Ammonitish king takes upon him to inherit Gad,
the possession of one of his tribes, and causeth his people to dwell
in the cities of Israel ?

2. " Then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs,
saith the LORD."] — Then shall Israel come to take possession of
the land of the Ammonites, which had usurped the possessions of
Israel.

3. "Howl, 0 Heshbon, for Ai is spoiled: cry, ye daughters of
Rabbah."] — Howl, O Heshbon, the chief city of the Gadites,
usurped by Amrnon, for Ai, the neighbour city is spoiled ; and let
Rabbah the great city of the Ammonites mourn, &c.

4. " Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley,

0 backsliding daughter?"] — Wherefore dost thou glory in thy
rich and fruitful valleys, 0 thou proud and rebellious issue of
Ammon? &c.

7 . " Concerning Edom, thus saith the LORD of hosts ; Is wis
dom no more in Teman ? is counsel perished from the prudent ?
is their wisdom vanished?"] — Those of Teman, in the land of
Idumea, had wont to be accounted wise men : what ! is there no
wisdom now left amongst them? hath their wit utterly failed
them, that they cast not how to be freed from the danger of
the Chaldeans ?

8. " Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan ;
for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him."] — Let the inha
bitants of Dedan, a city of Edom, flee : for I will bring upon them
that calamity which is justly owing to the sons of Esau whom I
have rejected, &c.

10. "I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be
able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled."] — But I have wholly
despoiled Edom, and have left him no hiding-place : I have strip-

, ped him of all his forces ; his seed is destroyed, &c.

11. " Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive ;
and let thy widows trust in me."] — If thou have any orphans or
any widows left, I will take order for them, saith the Lord ; yea,

1 will take order that thou shalt have none left alive.

12. " For thus saith the LORD ; Behold, they whose judgment
was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken ; and art
thou he that shall altogether go unpunished ?"] — For thus saith

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the Lord ; Behold, even my people the Jews, which in compa
rison of thee had no reason to be put to these extremities of judg
ments, they have been plagued severely by my just hand; and
shalt thou think to go unpunished ? &c.

13. "For I have sworn by myself, saith the LORD, that Bozrah
shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse ; and
all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes.""] — I have firmly
and irrevocably decreed, that thy prime city Bozrah shall be per
petually desolated ; and the daughter cities that appertain to it
shall be laid waste for ever.

14. "I have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambas
sador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather ye together, and
come against her, and rise up to the battle."] — I have certain and
infallible revelation from the Lord, and summons is gone out
from him unto the Chaldeans and Assyrians to that purpose, that
God will send a powerful and irresistible enemy against Edom : he
calls together the dreadful forces of these great kings to set upon it.

16. "0 thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that hold-
est the height of the hill : though thou shouldest make thy nest
as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith
the LORD."] — 0 thou that hast wont to brag of thy strong and
impregnable forts and situation, that thy towers are high and in
vincible, know, that if thou shouldest build as high as the eagle
makes his nest, I will bring thee down thence, saith the Lord.

19. " Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of
Jordan against the habitation of the strong : but I will suddenly
make him run away from her : and who is a chosen man, that I
may appoint over her ? for who is like me ? and who will appoint
me the time ? and who is that shepherd that will stand before
me ?"] — Behold, the proud Edomite comes up against the Chal
dean, like some fierce lion that is driven by the swelling of the
streams of Jordan to change his den, and to seek his prey in the
mountains ; but I will suddenly make him to run away from that
mighty enemy : and who is the man whom I shall choose out to
be the leader of this great design ? even Nebuchadnezzar, the
king of Babylon : I have thus decreed it, and who shall alter my
determinations? who will take upon him either to direct or to
oppose me ?

20. " Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out."]—
Surely the very meanest and basest of the Chaldean army shall
discomfit and overthrow the proud inhabitants of Teman, &c.

JEREMIAH XLIX. 13-37. 495

21." The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry
the noise thereof was heard in the Red sea."] — So great shall be
the noise of the fall of those walls, and the shouts and shrieks of
the people, as that it shall he heard very far off, even as far as
the Red sea, which is very remote from it.

23. " Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and
Arpad : for they have heard evil tidings : they are fainthearted ;
there is sorrow on the sea ; it cannot be quiet."] — Concerning
Damascus. Antiochia and Arpad, cities of Syria, are dismayed
and confounded : for they have heard the fearful rumours of the
Chaldean preparation, and are fainthearted ; and the isles, that
lie near about, are extremely affrighted.

25. " How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!"]
— How is it that so goodly and famous a city as Damascus, so
praised, so admired, hath not the favour to be spared from sack
ing and vastation ?

27. " And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it
shall consume the palaces of Ben-hadad."] — I will cause a fire to
be kindled in the wall of Damascus, which shall consume the pa
lace of Ben-hadad, that ancient and cruel enemy of Israel.

28. "Arise ye, go up to Kedar, and spoil the men of the
east."] — Arise, O ye Chaldeans, go up against those of Kedar or
Arabia ; and spoil those that dwell towards the eastern coast.

31. " Arise, get you up unto the wealthy nation, that dwelleth
without care, saith the LORD, which have neither gates nor bars,
which dwell alone."] — Arise, get ye up unto the wealthy nation
of the Kedarenes, that dwell without care in their tents ; abound
ing with flocks and herds in the desert, where they dwell apart
without cities or towns.

35. " I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might."]
— I will overthrow the archers of the Parthians, and their con
fines on the seacoasts, and break their bows wherein their chief
strength consisteth.

36. "And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the
four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those
winds."] — And I will bring upon them enemies from all the coasts
of heaven, which shall prevail against them, and scatter them to
all the coasts of the world, &c.

37. " For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their ene
mies, and before them that seek their life : and I will bring evil
upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the LORD ;" &c.] — And I

496 PARAPHRASE UPON

will be known to triumph over those Parthians, and will erect
amongst them a throne for that king whom I have designed to it;
having utterly destroyed all their native kings and princes.

39. " But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will
bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the LORD."] — But at the
last, under the reign of the Messiah, will I call these Elamites into
my Church, saith the Lord. See Acts ii. 9.

L. 2. " Say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is
broken in pieces ; her idols are confounded, her images are broken
in pieces."] — That Babylon, which hath been a scourge to my
people, and to all the nations round about, is now taken itself, and
seized upon in my wrath : their great idol, Bel, in whom they
trusted, is confounded ; their great monarch is overthrown, and
all their petty gods and images are broke in pieces.

3. "For out of the north there cometh up a nation against
her."] — For the mighty nation of the Medes and Persians shall
come up against her, &c.

4. " In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the chil
dren of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah toge
ther, going and weeping : they shall ' go, and seek the LORD."] —
In those days the children of Israel and the children of Judah
shall, through the favour of the Persian monarchs, go up together,
weeping for joy, to return to their country, and to the place of
God's worship and service.

6. " My people hath been lost sheep : their shepherds have
caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the
mountains : they have gone from mountain to hill, they have for
gotten their restingplace."] — Their kings and priests and prophets
have misled them into abominable idolatries : they have seduced
them to superstitious devotions on their high places ; persuading
them to go, one while to one idol, another while to another, till
they had forgotten the temple of God, to which God had appointed
them to confine their service.

8. " Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of
the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the
flocks."] — Get you gone, 0 ye Jews; go with joy and gladness
out of Chaldea, the land of your captivity ; and go forth with
courage and speed, as the he goats are wont to go before the rest
of the flock.

9. " From the north country.'1] — See verse 3.

12. "Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare

JEREMIAH XLIX. 39.— L. 23. 497

you shall be ashamed : behold, the hindermost of the nations
shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert."] — Your mother
city, Babylon, shall be sore confounded, &c., and Chaldea, which
was the queen of all nations, shall now be cast behind all the rest,
and become a very wilderness, a barren desert.

16. " Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth
the sickle in the time of harvest : for fear of the oppressing sword
they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every
one to his own land."] — Spare not so much as the husbandman,
that soweth the corn in the fields of Babylon, or the reaper
thereof : let no man escape, though never so harmless or never
so useful : as for the hired forces, they shall run away, every one
to his own home.

17. " Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him
away : first the king of Assyria hath devoured him ; and last
this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones."]
— Israel is as a sheep scattered from the flock : those heathen
kings, which were fierce as lions, have driven them out of their
country : first, the kings of Assyria made havock of them ; then,
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, hath perfected their de
struction.

1 9. " And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he
shall feed on Carmel and Bashan."] — I will bring Israel back
from his captivity to his own land, and he shall now be as a sheep
grazing upon the fruitful hills of Carmel and Bashan, &c.

30. " In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the ini
quity of Israel shall be sought for, and tliere shall be none ; and
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found : for I will pardon
them whom I reserve."] — There shall not be found in Israel those
sins, and that heinous iniquity, which was the cause of their late
captivity ; and the sins of Judah shall be done away through my
grace and mercy.

31. "Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it,
and against the inhabitants of Pekod : waste and utterly destroy
after them."] — Go up, ye Modes and Persians, against the terri
tories of Babylon ; even against the land of these proud rebels,
against the land of those who have visited my people with the
sword and merciless destruction, and do ye utterly destroy
them, &c.

33. " How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and

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broken!"] — How is it that Babylon, which was the hammer to
beat all other nations in pieces, is now broken in pieces ? &c.

36. " A sword is upon the liars."]— A sword shall be upon their
lying astrologers and diviners, unto whom they trusted.

41. " Behold, a people shall come from the north/' &c.] — So
verse 3.

44. " He shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jor
dan," &c.] — See chapter xlix. 19. Behold the Babylonians shall
come up, &c.

45. " Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out.""] — See
chapter xliv. 20.

LI. i. "A. destroying wind."] — A furious adversary which
shall come in as a strong tempestuous wind.

2. " And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her,
and shall empty her land.""] — I will send unto Babylon the Medes
and Persians, which shall put them to the fan of tribulation and
dispersion, &c.

3. "Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow,
and against him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine : and
spare ye not her young men."] — Suffer not, O ye Medes, the
Babylonian archers so much as to bend their bows, &c. But cut
them off in the first offer of their assault ; and make no spare of
any of them, &c.

6. " Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man
his soul:" &c.] — See chap. 1. ver. 8. Continue not in Babylon
while ye may be free ; but depart away from the danger, both of
her sins and judgment.

7. " Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD'S hand, that
made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her
wine; therefore the nations are mad."] — Babylon hath been
hitherto as a golden cup, out of which God would have all the
nations of the earth drink their bitter draught of his wrath and
indignation : they have drunk out thence, and have been so griev
ously afflicted by her cruelty, that they have been ready to run
mad with grief.

8. " Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed : howl for her ;
take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed."] — Babylon
is suddenly fallen : howl and mourn, 0 ye her associates, for the
downfall of so great a monarchy; and, if it may be, use some
helps for her recovery.

JEREMIAH L. 36.— LI. 25. 499

9. " We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed :
forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country : for
her judgment reacheth unto heaven," &c.] — Alas, we have not
slackened our endeavours, shall they say, to have succoured and
relieved her, but all in vain ; for her wound, which God's wrath
hath inflicted upon her, is utterly incurable : away therefore, let
us shift for ourselves ; let us run every man to his own country,
and leave her to the revenge of the Almighty, which is indeed so
great as that it reacheth to the very heavens, &c.

10. "The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come,
and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God."] —
The Lord hath magnified his great mercy and truth to us, in
that he hath taken upon him the patronage and protection of us
his people, and hath been thus openly revenged of our enemies ;
O come, therefore, and let us declare in his holy temple the great
works of our God.

11. "Make bright the arrows; gather the shields."] — Now,
therefore, ye Medes and Persians, address yourselves to the fight ;
scour up your armours, brighten your arrows, &c.

13. " 0 thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in
treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetous-
ness."] — 0 thou great and wealthy Babylon, that wert seated
upon the famous river of Euphrates, which divided itself for thy
commodity, and made many islands for thy profit and defence,
thine end is now come.

14. " Surely I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillars ; and
they shall lift up a shout against thee."] — I will fill thee with ene
mies so thick, as if they were swarms of caterpillars. See for the
rest of the verse, chap. xxv. ver. 30.

17. " Every man is brutish by his knowledge;"" &c.] — See
chap. x. ver. 14.

19. "The portion of Jacob is not like them."] — See chap. x.
ver. 16.

20. " Thou art my battle ax and weapons of war : for with
thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I de
stroy kingdoms."] — O Babylon, I have hitherto made use of thee
for the subduing of divers kingdoms, and for breaking of many
nations in pieces.

25. " Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith
the LORD, which destroyest all the earth : and I will stretch out
mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will

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make thee a burnt mountain."]— Behold, I am against thee now,
O Babylon, thou Luge pile of perdition; which hast hitherto
crushed the whole earth with thy vastness and power, &c. I will
make thee like an hill of rubbish, an heap of burnt ruins.

27. " Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni,
and Ashchenaz ; appoint a captain against her ; cause the horses
to come up as the rough caterpillars."] — Muster up together the
kingdoms of both Armenias, and of the lesser Asia ; set generals
and captains over the appointed bands ; cause the troops of horses
to come in, as thick as the swarms of caterpillars ; and all to go
up against Babylon.

33. " The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is
time to thresh her : yet a little while, and the time of her harvest
shall come."] — The city of Babylon is like a threshingfloor : the
sheaves that are in her must be beaten and throughly trodden
out : her harvest is now near at hand, wherein God will lay upon
her with the flail of his heavy judgments.

34. " Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me,
he hath crushed me," &c.] — Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Baby
lon, shall Jerusalem say, hath devoured me ; he hath utterly de
stroyed me, &c.

35. " The violence done to me and to my flesh."] — And now,
let God repay to Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonians the violence
which they did to me and my people, &c

38. " They shall roar together like lions."] — They shall roar
together, in their pain and horror, like lions that yell for
hunger, &c.

39. "In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make
them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep,
and not wake, saith the LORD."] — When they are heated with
wine in their feasts, and drunken in their merry banquets, quaff
ing healths and praising their gods in the bowls of my temple,
even then will I bring the sword of Cyrus upon them, and smite
them that they shall sleep their last. See Daniel, chap. v.

41. "How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the
whole earth surprised !"] — What an incredible thing is this ? How
can it be, that Babylon, the great mistress of the world, should
thus be spoiled and defaced ? &c.

42. " The sea is come up upon Babylon."] — The innumerable
and mighty host of the Medes is, like a raging sea, broken in
upon Babylon, &c.

JEREMIAH LI. 27.— LAMENTATIONS I. 2. 501

44. " And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth
out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up."] — I will break
in pieces and put to shame the idol Bel, that was worshipped of
the Babylonians ; and will fetch out of his mouth those many and
rich oiferings which were made to that dunghill deity, &c.

45. " Go ye out of the midst of her."] — See verse 6.

46. "Ruler against ruler."] — Cyrus against Belshazzar.

48. " Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein,
shall sing for Babylon."] — The heavens and the earth, and all
creatures shall rejoice, and praise God for the just destruction that
is brought upon Babylon.

49. " As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at
Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.""] — As Babylon hath
slain my people of Israel, so the Babylonians shall be slain all the
earth over ; and in Babylon shall fall those of all the countries
round about, which shall be there slaughtered.

51." For strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD'S
house."] — Pagans have come into the sanctuary of God's temple,
and have denied it, and razed it to the ground.

52. "And through all her land the wounded shall groan."] —
Through all her land, those that are not slain right out shall lie
groaning and roaring for the pain of their wounds.

57. " I will make drunk her princes," &c.] — See verse 39.

58. " And the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the
fire, and they shall be weary."] — In vain shall the people la
bour to quench that fire which is kindled for the consuming of
Babylon.

THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH.

1. i. " How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people !
how is she become as a widow ! she that was great among the
nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become
tributary !"] — Woe is me for Jerusalem ! how wofully is the
case altered with her ! She that was of late exceeding populous,
and thronged in her streets with men, is now left alone, like a
solitary widow : she that of late was a commander of many pro
vinces, is now become a tributary to an usurping commander.

2. " She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her
cheeks."] — No time gives her any respite from her mourning:
night and day doth she pour out her tears, &c.

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3. " Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and be
cause of great servitude : she dwelleth among the heathen, she
findeth no rest : all her persecutors overtook her between the
straits.""] — Many Jews, to avoid the miserable servitude of the
Chaldees, have betaken themselves to a voluntary transmigration
to other nations, hoping there to find rest ; but even there have
these Babylonian persecutors overtaken them, so that they are
surprised in those straits which could no way be avoided.

5. " Her adversaries are the chief."] — Her adversaries are her
commanders, &c.

9. " Her filthiness is in her skirts ; she remcmbereth not her
last end ; therefore she came down wonderfully : she had no com
forter."] — She cannot hide her shame any longer; that loath
some annoyance of hers, which she would fain have concealed,
appears even in her very outward garments ; and so faithless is
she grown, that she will not apprehend the assurance of her final
deliverance, &c.

12. "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and
see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.'1] — 0 all ye pas
sengers that travel this way, stay a while, and behold my mise
rable ruins ; and indeed can ye pass by and not view them, and
not seriously consider of them ? and, if ye do seriously think of
them, say then, was there ever city or people in so woful a plight
as I am ? &c.

13. " From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it pre-
vaileth against them."] — God hath seemed from above to cast
firebrands into my towers and palaces, whereby my goodly build
ings are consumed, &c.

14. " The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand."] —
That yoke of my grievous servitude under the Chaldees, which my
sins have justly called for, is bound about my neck by his punish
ing hand, &c.

17. "Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them."] —
Jerusalem is counted as an abomination unto them, as loathsome
and unclean.

19. "I called for my lovers, but they deceived me.""] — I called
for the aid of my associates and allies, but they deceived me, &c.

21. "Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they
shall be like unto me.""] — Thou wilt bring upon them the judg
ments which thou hast threatened, and then they shall be in the
like plight that I am in.

LAMENTATIONS, 1. 3.— III. 6. 503

II. i. "And remembered not his footstool in the day of his
anger."] — And remembered not his temple, the place of his former
abode, in the day of his anger.

3. " He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel."]
— He hath in his anger weakened and cut off all the strength of
Israel, &c.

6. "And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it
were of a, garden : he hath destroyed his places of the assembly."]
— That tabernacle of his, which he had settled amongst us for our
comfort and protection, he hath now turned up, as if it were a
garden, fit to be digged up for the use of plantation, &c.

7. " They have made a noise in the house of the LOKD, as in
the day of a solemn feast."]— As we had wont in our solemn
feasts to make a noise of joy and thankful acclamations in thy
temple, so now they make no less noise of tumult and insultation
over us.

8. " He hath stretched out a line."] — He hath destinatcd and
appointed it to razing and ruin, &c.

13. " What thing shall I take to witness for thee?" &c.] — With
what example of like misery shall I go about to comfort thee ?

14. " But have seen for thee false burdens and causes of ba
nishment."] — They have seen false visions; and pretended to
bring those messages from God which were never sent ; and by
this means have wronged thee, and have been the causes of this
thy captivity.

22. " Those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine
enemy consumed."] — Those whom I have borne and bred up with
all care and anxious diligence hath mine enemy consumed.

III. i . ' ' I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of
his wrath."] — I, Jeremiah, am the man that have seen this great
affliction, which the Lord hath in just anger brought upon his
people.

2. " He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not
into light."] — He hath brought me into the gloomy darkness of
affliction, and hath given me no glimpse of comfort.

4. "My flesh and my skin hath he made old."] — He hath worn
out my body with sorrow, &c.

5. "He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall
and travel."] — He hath besieged me with evils, and compassed
me about with misery and grief.

6. " He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of

504 PARAPHRASE UPON

old."] — He hath shut me up under discomfort and heaviness ; and
laid me aside in the dungeon, as a dead man out of sight.

9. " He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made
my paths crooked."] — He hath laid in my way unremovable im
pediments, and hath crossed me in my designs. See also ver.n.

1 6. " He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he
hath covered me with ashes."] — He hath beaten me down with
such force, as that my teeth are broken ; and my mouth, being
dashed against the ground, is full of gravel with the fall.

21. "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope."] — I
recall to my mind these following meditations, and thereupon I
conceive hope and comfort.

27. " It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth."]
— It is good for a man to be exercised early with afflictions, and
to acquaint himself with God's chastisements.

28. " He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath
borne it upon him."] — Such a one will sit silently alone; and
patiently bear that hand of God which is upon him.

29. " He putteth his mouth in the dust ; if so be there may be
hope."] — And humbles himself under that good hand to the very
dust, if there may be hope, by his true humiliation and fervent
prayers, to obtain favour from God.

30. " He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him : he is filled
full with reproach."] — In the mean time, he meekly yields over
himself to the oppressing hand of a persecutor, and patiently
bears his reproach.

34. " To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth."]
— For, however the wicked impatience of men may suggest, it is
not the manner of God to crush under his feet those that are
already humbled.

35. "To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the
most High."] — Or, to shift off the trial of any man's cause, that
he should not have a full hearing of his plea before his great and
righteous tribunal. So ver. 36.

37. "Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the
Lord commandeth it not?"] — Who is he that will undertake to
effect any thing without the Lord ; or will say, that aught can be
done which he willeth not ?

38. " Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil
and good."] — It is only good and just, which can proceed from
the mouth of God : there is no unrighteousness in his decrees and
proceedings.

LAMENTATIONS III. 9.— IV. 20. 505

39. "Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the
punishment of his sins?"] — Why then doth any living man com
plain of God's hand ? why doth he murmur when he suffers the
due punishment for his sins ?

47- " Fear and a snare is come upon us."] — See Isaiah xxiv. 17.

63. "I am their music."] — I am the matter of their mirth and
songs.

IV. 7. "Her Nazarites were purer than snow."] — While Jeru
salem stood upright with God, her votaries were holy and inno
cent, &c.

14. " They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they
have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch
their garments.'"1] — For this their cruelty they are stricken with
the hand of God, so as that they are driven to wander in the
streets, without habitations ; groping for the way, like blind men ;
being so defiled with innocent blood, as that men could not touch
their very garments without uncleanness.

15. "They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean ; depart,
depart, touch not : when they fled away and wandered, they said
among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there"~\ — No part
of the city was free from very foul pollution ; on all sides might
be heard that cry, appointed to the lepers, Depart, depart, I am
unclean : at last, there was no way but to flee away from that de
filed city ; they fled therefore at uncertains, and wandered they
knew not whither ; so much as it was said among the heathen,
There will be no more hope of their return to dwell in Jerusalem.

17. "In our watching we have watched for a nation that could
not save us"~\ — We depended upon hope and aid from the Egyp
tians, which could not succour us, nor preserve themselves.

1 8. "They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets.""]
— They hunt and chase us up and down in our streets; they
follow us at the heels, so as we cannot so much as look out of our
doors, &c.

19. "Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven,"
&c.] — These Chaldean persecutors are so swift, that it is vain to
hope for an escape from them, &c.

20. "The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD,
was taken in their pits."] — Yea, which makes up the measure of
our sorrow and misery, our king Zedekiah, the anointed of the
Lord, who was dear to us as our very breath and life, was taken
by them in their pursuit, &c.

506 PARAPHRASE UPON

21. "Rejoice and be glad, 0 daughter of Edom, that dwellest
in the land of Uz ; the cup also shall pass through unto thee :
thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked."] — Re
joice, 0 thou ancient enemy, the posterity of Esau, that dwellest
in the land of Uz ; rejoice thou in our ruin and desolation, as thou
pleasest ; but this cup of the Lord's vengeance shall come in due
time unto thee also, and thou shalt drink deep of it, and the shame
of thy wickedness shall be discovered.

V. 7. " Our fathers have sinned, and are not ; and we have
borne their iniquities."] — See Jer. xxxi. 29.

8. " Servants have ruled over us."] — Not only the princes and
great commanders of Chaldea have ruled over us, but even their
very slaves insult upon us, and exercise cruelty upon us, &c.

9. " We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of
the sword of the wilderness."] — Even before this destruction,
during the time of the siege, we were fain to get our bread with
the peril of our lives, because of the sword of the enemy that lay
encamped about us.

12. "Princes are hanged up by their hand."] — Our princes
were driven to make their own hands their executioners, &c.

13. "They took the young men to grind, and the children fell
under the wood."] — They put our young men to all the servile
and base drudgeries that could be devised ; and compelled our
children to undergo those burdens which they were not able to
carry.

16. C( The crown is fallen from our head : woe unto us, that we
have sinned !"] — All our glory is' quite gone, and utterly cast down
to the ground.

1 8. "Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the
foxes walk upon it."] — The hill of Zion, where the temple stood,
which was so honoured, so frequented, is now so desolate that the
very foxes walk upon it.

EZEKIEL.

I.i. " Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth
month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives
by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw
visions of God."] — It came to pass, in the thirtieth year after the
jubilee, and the finding of the original copy of the law, in the
month of July, and the fifth day of that month, when I was among
the Hebrew captives in Chaldea, by the river Chebar, that God

LAMENTATIONS IV. 21.— EZEKIEL I. 7. 507

revealed himself to me, and put into me the spirit of prophecy,
and represented divers visions to the eyes of my mind.

2. " In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of
king Jehoiachin's captivity."] — In the fifth day of July, which
was in the fifth year of the first deportation into Babylon and
captivity there.

3. "And the hand of the LORD was there upon him.1"1] — And
the efficacy of God's Spirit did show itself in and upon me, in his
holy revelations.

4. " And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the
north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness
was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber,
out of the midst of the fire."] — And, behold, I looked; and God
showed me a representation of those fearful tempests of calamity
which yet were to come upon his people, by a whirlwind arising
from the north, (whence their further persecution and captivity
was to come,) by a dark cloud ; and fire infolded within it, to sig
nify the trial which they are to undergo : but there was a pleasing
brightness about that cloud ; and out of the midst of that fiery
splendour there was, as it were, a shining colour of amber, to sig
nify the presence of God's powerful grace and mercy in the midst
of all the fiery trials of his Church.

5. "Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four
living creatures. And this ivas their appearance ; they had the
likeness of a man."] — And out of the midst of that fiery bright
ness came four angels, in the likeness of four living creatures,
whose number was proportioned to the four corners of the world.
And this was their appearance, they had the shape and likeness
of a man.

6. "And every one had four faces, and every one had four
wings."] —And every one of them had four faces ; to signify their
ready address to receive whatsoever command from God, which
way soever it should be delivered : and every one of them had
four wings, to signify their swiftness in execution of all the
charges of God.

7. " And their feet were straight feet : and the sole of their
feet was like the sole of a calf s foot : and they sparkled like the
colour of burnished brass."]— The legs of these angels were straight
up, like the legs of a man ; and their feet were round, as the cir
cumference of a calf's foot, for the greater fitness of that turn
ing motion which they should be put unto; and they had a

508 PARAPHRASE UPON

sparkling kind of brightness in their moving, like to that of
burnished brass.

8. " And they had the hands of a man under their wings on
their four sides ; and they four had their faces and their wings."]
And they had the likeness of hands ; to signify their aptness to
execute the will of God : and those hands were under their wings ;
to imply that their motion is not of themselves, but such as is
regulated and directed by the secret instinct of God : all the four
angels had both faces and wings.

9. " Their wings were joined one to another ; they turned not
when they went ; they went every one straight forward."] — Their
wings were joined together at their tops, to signify their full con
cord and agreement in fulfilling God^s command ; and they went
unanimously together, and all moved right forward without turn
ing to the right hand or to the left.

10. " As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face
of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side : and they four
had the face of an ox on the left side ; they four also had the face
of an eagle."] — And for the likeness of their faces, it was according
to the several qualities which are eminent in four noted creatures ;
a man, a lion, an ox, an eagle : such were these angels ; to sig
nify that they were understanding as a man, strong as a lion, ser
viceable as the ox, as the eagle swift.

11. "Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched
upward ; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and
two covered their bodies."] — Such were their faces: as for their
wings, two of them were stretched upward ; to signify their rela
tion unto and dependance upon God's charge : and were joined
together ; in a signification of the perfect concord and joint agree
ment in all their services : and two of them covered their bodies ;
to signify the hidden nature of these celestial spirits, beyond the
reach of all human comprehension.

12. "And they went every one straight forward : whither the
spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they
went."] — And they went in this posture all together, straight for
ward, which way soever the Spirit of God moved them to go ; not
turning at all to either hand.

13. "As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appear
ance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of
lamps : it went up and down among the living creatures ; and the
fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning."] — As

EZEKIEL I. 8-19. 509

for the colour wherein these angels appeared, they seemed to be
like unto the burning coals of fire, or like to burning lamps ; to
represent both the glory and the terror of those spiritual creatures ;
and this fiery glittering seemed to be diffused over all these angels;
and did cast out a bright lustre from it, and did, as it were, dart
out lightning upon the eyes of the beholder.

14. "And the living creatures ran and returned as the appear
ance of a flash of lightning."] — And the angels made so speedy
despatch, as that their motion was as the sudden flash of the light
ning.

15. "Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel
upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces."]—
Now, as I beheld these four angels, behold, I might see four wheels
appearing upon the earth by those four angels, to signify the
perpetual mutability of all these inferior things.

16. "The appearance of the wheels and their work was like
unto the colour of a beryl : and they four had one likeness : and
their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the
middle of a wheel."] — The appearance of every one of the wheels
and their work was of a sea-colour, to show the vanity and insta
bility of these earthly things ; and they four had one likeness, to
show the constant uniformity of God's proceedings with men : and
their work was as it were of a sphere, wherein one wheel seemeth
to be set cross to the other ; to shoAv that, however God hath
most wisely and ordinately disposed all things, yet they seem to
us intricate and perplexed.

17. "When they went, they went upon their four sides: and
they returned not when they went."] — When they moved, they
moved all four together; and went right on to the period ap
pointed.

18. " As for the rings, they were so high that they were dread
ful ; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four."] —
As for the outmost roundels of those wheels, they were of a vast
and dreadful height; and they were on all sides thereof full of
eyes, to show that there is not the least motion in any of these
earthly things which is not directed by an eye of Divine pro
vidence.

19. "And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by
them : and when the living creatures were lifted up from the
earth, the wheels were lifted up.-"] — And, to show that all these
worldly alterations and changes have a dependence upon the

510 PARAPHRASE UPON

powerful preordination and instinct of God, and are overruled by
those ministering spirits to whom he committeth the managing
thereof, when the angels moved on, the wheels moved by them,
and when the angels were lifted up, the wheels were lifted up
also.

20. " AVhithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither
was their spirit to go ; and the wheels were lifted up over against
them : for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels."] —
Which way soever the Spirit of God directed them to go, thither
they went : and if by the power of that almighty Spirit the
angels were raised upward, the wheels were accordingly raised ;
for the same Spirit that moved the angels did also move those
wheels to concur with them j God, by his angels, transfusing into
these earthly creatures the power of their governance and motion.

So also verse 21.

22. "And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the
living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched
forth over their heads above."] — And the colour of the firma
ment, which was spread over the heads of these four angels, was
as the colour of a glorious crystal, which had in it a kind of ma-
jestical brightness.

23. "And under the firmament were their wings straight, the
one toward the other : every one had two, which covered on this
side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their
bodies."] — And under this shining firmament were the wings of
these four angels reached straight forth, one towards another ;
which, as was formerly said, being four to each, two of them
served to be stretched forth for the meeting of the wings of their
fellows, and the other two covered their own bodies.

24. "And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings,
like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the
voice of speech, as the noise of an host."] — And when they moved,
I heard the noise of their wings, in their motion, very loud and
strong, as of gushing waters or of thunder ; and the noise of that
voice which was heard over them was as the shouting of an
host.

So also verse 25.

2,6. " And above the firmament that was over their heads was
the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone :
and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the ap
pearance of a man above upon it."] — And to show that all these

EZEKIEL I. 20.— II. 8. 511

motions, both of the angels and the inferior creatures, proceed
from the infinite wisdom and power of God, above the firmament
that was over their heads, there was the likeness of the glorious
throne of the Almighty, bright and shining of a celestial colour ;
and upon that throne was there the likeness of a man sitting,
even that God, who would afterwards take upon him the shape of
man, for man's redemption.

37. "And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of
fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even
upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I
saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round
about."] — And I saw the resemblance of a glorious amber-co
loured brightness, and as of a perfectly inflamed and ardently
red fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins
upward ; and for the other part, which was from the appearance
of the loins downward, the resemblance of a bright fire, but less
digested ; to show that the son of God, though all glorious, yet
in thakpart which concerns his creatures, and wherein he reveals
himself to men, he remits of that fiery and incomprehensible Ma
jesty, and descends graciously to our capacity and apprehension.

II. a. "And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto
me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto
me."] — And the Spirit of God entered into me, and put courage
into my heart, together with the outward sound of his word ; and
raised me up from my grovelling, and set me on my feet.

5. "And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will
forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that
there hath been a prophet among them."] — And they, whether
they will hear or will not hear, (as they are more like ; for they
are a stubborn people,) shall yet be convinced of their rebellion
by thy prophecy ; and shall by the event feel and find that they
have had a prophet amongst them, whereby their sins are either
reformed or shall be more deeply punished.

6. " And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be
afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and
thou dost dwell among scorpions : be not afraid of their words,"
&c.] — Though this people shall be to thee as briers and thorns,
which shall prick and wound thy soul; and thou must dwell
among scorpions, which shall sting thee unto death ; yet be not
afraid, £c.

8. " Open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee."]— Open thy

512 PARAPHRASE UPON

mouth, and, in signification and assurance that thou dost obedi
ently receive these messages which I deliver unto thee, and wilt
be ready to utter them to my people, eat that which I shall give
unto thee.

III. i, 2. "Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that
thou findest ; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.
So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll."] —
Moreover he said unto me, in this vision of mine, Son of man, eat
that, which I now offer thee. See chap. ii. verse 8.

3. "Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for
sweetness."] — Then methought I did eat up that roll ; and though
it were written within and without lamentations, yet in my mouth,
as I was chewing it, it seemed to be sweet as honey ; so pleasing
a contentment there is in an holy obedience to the commands of
God.

8. " Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces,
and thy forehead strong against their foreheads."] — Behold, I
have given thee boldness and courage to bear up against their
strong oppositions ; so as thou shalt not be daunted with their
outfacings.

9. "As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy fore
head."] — Yea, I have put an invincible courage into thee, so as no
force of theirs shall be able to prevail against thee, &c.

12. "Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place."] —
Blessed be the name, and praised be the glory of the Son of God,
who sits upon this throne of Majesty.

13. " I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures
that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against
them, and a noise of a great rushing."] — And I heard the noise
of the wings of those angels which I saw, and the noise of those
wheels which were moved by them, in an applause or acclamation
to that praise and celebration of the name of Christ, as that
wherein all creatures conspire.

14. " So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went
in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit ; but the hand of the LORD
was strong upon me."] — So the Spirit of God lifted me up from
the ground on which I lay, and removed me from that place, se
parating me also, for the time, from the common society of men ;
and I went away very heavy and pensive, and much troubled in
my spirit, for the sad purport of this vision ; but the power of
God's Spirit was forcible and prevalent with me, so as I was not

EZEKIEL III. i, 2.— IV. 2. 513

too much dejected, either with that fearful apparition or that
grievous errand.

20. " Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his right
eousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblinghlock before
him, he shall die."] — Again, when a man that carries himself as
righteous, and is in his whole course inoffensive, doth turn away
from that his holy profession, and give himself over to a trade of
wickedness, and I meet with him in that sinful course, and sur
prise him with my judgments, he shall die, &c. Those good
actions which he hath formerly done, and his forepast holy car
riage, shall not be so respected as to keep him from just condem
nation ; &c.

23. "And, behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, as the
glory which I saw by the river of Chebar."] — And, behold, there
it pleased God to give me a representation of his glorious pre
sence, as before, when I was by the river Chebar, &c.

24. "Then the spirit entered into me,11 &c.] — See verse 14.

25. " They shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with
them."] — Their wickedness shall tie up thy tongue, and cause thee
to keep close from them, &c.

26. " And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy
mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a re
prover."] — I will impose silence upon thee for a judgment to them,
so as thou shalt not reprove their misdeeds any more.

27. "But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and
thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; He that
heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear."]
— But when I renew my commission to thee, and bid thee to
speak, I will then give thee a freedom of speech unto them, and
thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord : whether they hear thee or
hear thee not, it is all one to thee; do thou thy duty, and it
sufficeth, &c.

IV. i. "Take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray
upon it the city, even Jerusalem."] — Make thee upon a tile a
model or draught of the city Jerusalem.

2. " And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and
cast a mount against it ; set the camp also against it, and set bat
tering rams against it round about,"] — And then make the model
of a siege laid against that so pourtrayed city, in all the repre
sentations of those hostile actions that are wont to be done against
a city that is beleagured.

BP. HALL, VOL. III. L 1

514 PARAPHRASE UPON

3. " Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for
a wall of iron between thee and the city : and set thy face against
it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it.
This shall be a sign to the house of Israel."] — And to signify the
strength and invincibleness of that siege, set a pot of iron between
thee and that city ; and then do thou set thy face against it, as if
thou wert the besieger of it : and this shall be a sign to all the
people of Israel what they shall really expect to be performed
against them.

4. " Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of
the house of Israel upon it : according to the number of the days
that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity."] — Lie
thou also upon thy left side, and by thy quiet and still lying
thereon represent unto the house of Israel, the Ten Tribes, how
long I have lien patiently under the many provocations which I
have had from those rebellious Israelites : according to the num
ber of the days wherein thou shalt in vision lie upon that side,
thou shalt represent my patience under the iniquity of the house
of Israel.

5 . " For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, ac
cording to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety
days : so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel."] —
So many days as thou shalt, in the appointment of this vision, lie
upon that left side for this purpose, so many have been the years
that I have quietly forborne to revenge the iniquities of Israel,
that is, three hundred and ninety years, answerable to so many
days, since their defection under Jeroboam.

6. "And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy
right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah
forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year."] — And
when thou hast done this, in a figure of what I have done for
Israel, then lie another while upon thy right side, to represent
my bearing with the iniquity of the house of Judah : forty days
are in thy vision appointed for this posture in figure of forty
years that I have been provoked by the sins of Judah.

7. " Thine arm shall be uncovered."] — Thine arm shall be un
covered ; to signify the vehemence and readiness of execution
which shall be in the besiegers of Jerusalem.

8. " And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt
not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the
days of thy siege."]— And to show the immutable certainty of

EZEKIEL IV. 3-14. 515

that my decree for the besieging of Jerusalem, I will lay bands
upon thee in this vision, that thou mayest not change sides till the
days of that foreappointed siege be fulfilled.

9. " Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans,
and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel,
and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the
days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety
days shalt thou eat thereof."] — And as thou shalt thus represent
the siege, so also, in the sequel, thou shalt represent the famine
which shall fall upon Jerusalem ; take thee therefore all kinds of
grain, wheat and barley and beans, and lentiles and fitches, and
put them all together, and make bread of this mesline, and eat
thereof for the space of three hundred and ninety days; to signify
that in that strait siege there shall be such scarcity as that they
shall be glad of the coarsest sustenance.

10. "Arid thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight,
twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it."] —
And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be stinted unto thee, ac
cording to five ounces the day.

ii." Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part
of an hin : from time to time shalt thou drink."] — Neither shalt
thou have full scope to drink how much water thou pleasest, but
shalt have it allowed thee by measure, about a pint a day; and so
shalt continue.

12, 13. "And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt
bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.5'] —
And thou shalt make it up in the form of barley cakes, and shalt
bake it, instead of coals, with man's dung, in the sight of the
people ; to signify that extreme pollution whereto God will give
over his people among the Gentiles.

14. "Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not
been polluted : for from my youth up even till now have I not
eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces ; neither
came there abominable flesh into my mouth."] — Then said I, Ah
Lord God ! behold, as I have been consecrated to thy service in
the priesthood, so I have carefully kept myself from all legal pol
lutions from my youth : I have not eaten aught that is forbidden
by thy law, but have avoided all those offensive meats, of what
kind soever; and now, thou knowest that this excrementitious
fire, which thou enjoinest, is, besides the loathsomeness, unclean
i by thy law.

L 1 2

516 PARAPHRASE UPON

16. "1 will break the staff of bread."] — Sec Leviticus xxvi.
vcr. 26.

V. i. "And thou, son of man, take thce a sharp knife, take
thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and
upon thy beard : then take thee balances to weigh, and divide
the halt'"'] — To foresignify that variety of miserable desolation
which shall come upon Jerusalem, take thee a sharp knife, even a
barber's razor, and therewith cause all the hair of thy head and
beard to be shaven off: the hairs of thy head and beard represent
the numerous inhabitants of Jerusalem : all they shall be cut by
several ways of destruction ; and therefore take thy balances, and
weigh thine hair into three equal parts.

2. " Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the
city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled : and thou shalt take
a third part, and smite about it with a knife : and a third part
thou shalt scatter in the wind ; and I will draw out a sword after
them."] — One third part shalt thou burn with fire; to show the
extremity of that calamity, which a third part of the inhabitants
shall endure in pestilence and famine in the siege : another third
part thou shalt smite about with a knife ; to show that a third
part of them shall fall by the sword : and one other third part of
it thou shalt scatter in the wind ; to signify their dispersion in the
captivity, which shall be attended also with much cruelty after
wards. See verse 1 2.

3. " Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind
them in thy skirts."] — But thou shalt take up a few of those
hairs out of this division, and shalt bind them in thy skirts; to
signify that there shall be a small remnant yet reserved of my
people.

4. " Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of
the fire, and burn them in the fire ; for thereof shall a fire come
forth into all the house of Israel."] — Then afterward take of them
again which thou hadst reserved in thy skirts, and cast them into
the midst of the tire ; to signify that those remainders shall put
themselves into miserable affliction, and at last shall bring an utter
destruction to all the house of Israel.

16. "I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine/'] — I
will send a grievous famine upon them, which, like unto deadly
arrows, shall pierce through their souls.

VI. 3. " Ye mountains of Israel, hoar the word of the Lord."]
— The men of Israel will not hear ; hear therefore, () ye moun-

EZEKIEL IV. 1 6.— VJI. 12. 517

tains of Israel, which are less deaf than they, hear ye the judg
ments that God hath denounced against the sinful remainders of
Israel.

9. " And they that escape of you shall remember me among
the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am
broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me,
and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols."] —
And those that escape of you shall remember me among the
nations, &c. and bethink themselves how I have been over-pro
voked by their wicked idolatries; in that they have departed
from me, and have abandoned themselves to their shameful and
abominable idols, &c.

ii. "Thus saith the Lord GOD; Smite witli thine hand, and
stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas."] — Be thou vehement and
passionate in expressing thy sorrow and indignation for the sins
and judgments of thy people ; and therefore smite thine hands
together, and stamp with thy feet, and say, Alas, &c.

14. "More desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath."] —
Yea, more desolate than the most horrid, craggy, forlorn wilder
ness in the world.

VII. 5. " An evil, an only evil, behold, is come."] — That evil
is come upon thee, which alone shall make a despatch of thec :
there will need no other to second it.

7. " The day of trouble ift near, and not the sounding again
of the mountains."] — The day of thy grievous trouble is actually
and really come, which thou shalt find sensibly to be no empty
and vain sound of an echo among the mountains, but a true and
feeling destruction.

10. "The rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded."] — That
rod of punishment wherewith they shall be smitten, howsoever it
come from Chaldea, and hath put forth thence, yet the root of it
is from themselves, even from their own pride.

11. " Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness : none of
them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of thcir's :
neither shall there be wailing for them."] — And from this root
is grown up cruelty and violence ; and that violence hath showed
itself in open wickedness and outrageous oppositions unto good ;
which shall bring upon them so perfect a destruction, as that none
of them shall be left alive to bewail the dead.

12. "The time is come, the day drawcth near: let not the
buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn : for wrath is upon all the

518 PARAPHRASE UPON

multitude thereof."] — The time of this judgment is at hand, where
in all shall be inwrapped in one common calamity ; so as there
shall be no difference betwixt the condition of the buyer and the
seller ; for wrath is indifferently gone out upon all sorts.

13. "For the seller shall not return to that which is sold,
although they were yet alive : for the vision is touching the whole
multitude thereof, which shall not return ; neither shall any
strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life."] — And whereas in
the ordinary sale of Israelitish lands the seller is wont in the year
of Jubilee to return to those possessions which he hath aliened ;
now it shall not be so : though he be then alive, yet there shall
be no challenge or recovery of that which he hath sold ; for this
captivity shall be universal which is foretold in this vision, and that
which shall not admit of any such return as might restore this
generation to their ancient inheritance ; neither shall any wicked
man have cause to encourage himself in the vain confidence of his
impunity for his sin.

14. " They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready;
but none goeth to the battle : for my wrath is upon all the multi
tude thereof."] — And though the men of Israel train and muster,
and make great preparations of a warlike resistance, yet all this
shall be in vain ; for they shall never be able to stand in the day
of battle, for my wrath fights against all the multitude of them.

1 6. " But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be
on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning,
every one for his iniquity."] — And if any of them shall escape, as
some shall escape, the sword and pestilence, yet their life shall be
rather more miserable than death : for they shall be fain to hide
their heads in the desert mountains, and shall be like the fearful
doves that want shelter in the valleys ; all of them protracting a
woful life, only to suffer and languish under the conscience of their
own wickedness.

J 9. " They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold
shall be removed : their silver and their gold shall not be able to
deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD : they shall not
satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels : because it is the
stumblingblock of their iniquity."] — And whereas they formerly
trusted to their riches, now they shall cast their silver and gold
in the streets, as utterly unprofitable for their relief, &c.; now
they shall well find how little power this wealth of theirs hath to
satisfy their souls and to content their hearts ; because it is that

EZEK1EL VII. 13. -VIII. 3. 519

which they have made an occasion of their sin, by their unjust and
wicked confidence they have put in it.

20. " As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty :
but they made the images of their abominations and of their de
testable things therein : therefore have I set it far from them."]
— As for his beautiful and glorious temple, he placed it in great
majesty among them, as that which might well be their best and
greatest ornament; but they have notoriously profaned it in set
ting up their abominable idols therein ; therefore have I forsaken
both them and it, and give it over to the pollution and vastation
of the heathen.

23. " Make a chain : for the land is full of bloody crimes."] —
Make thee a chain of iron, to signify the miserable bondage and
captivity which is coming upon thy people, for the land is full of
bloody crimes, &c.

26. " Then shall they seek a vision of the prophet ; but the
law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients."]
— Then shall they be glad to inquire after the prophet of God, to
know what the issue of things shall be ; but, in a just punishment
of their former neglect and security, God shall take away his gifts
from their priests and prophets, so as they shall not be able to de
clare his will unto them for their direction and preservation.

VIII. i . " That the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon
me."] — The Spirit of the Lord was powerful with and upon me
in a divine rapture and vision.

2. " Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire :
from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire ; and from
his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the
colour of amber."] — Then I beheld, and, lo, there was showed to
me the likeness of an human shape ; whose lower parts from the
loins downward were as the colour of fire, and from the loins up
ward of a clear and pleasing brightness like unto amber ; to sig
nify, that that God who is graciously majestical in himself is ter
rible in the revenges of his wilful enemies.

3. " And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a
lock of mine head ; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth
and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusa
lem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north ;
where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to
jealousy."] — And from this appearance of an human shape there
was an hand put forth, which took me, as it seemed unto me in

520 PARAPHRASE UPON

this vision, by a lock of the hair of mine head ; and methought
the Spirit of God lifted me up betwixt the earth and the heaven,
and brought me, not in body, but in vision, to Jerusalem, to the
very door of the inner gate of the common court : even that gate
which looketh towards the north, where was the shrine of that
abominable idol of Baal set up, which provoked the just jealousy
of the Almighty.

4. " And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there,
according to the vision that I saw in the plain."] — And, behold,
there I saw the same representation of the glory of the God of
Israel which had been formerly showed unto me in the vision
which I had by the river of Chebar,

8. " Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall :
and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door."] — Then said
he unto me, Son of man, it is too much that thou seest this one
shameful idol, but thou shalt yet see many more; and besides
this open abomination thou shalt see hidden and secret ; dig now
in the wall : and when I had, in my vision, digged in the wall,
behold, a door seemed to appear.

1 1 . ' ' And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients
of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah
the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand ; and
a thick cloud of incense went up."] — And there stood before those
idols all the judges and rulers of Israel, which God had appointed
to be seventy in number ; and in the midst of them the president
of that senate Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan, with every man his
censer in his hand, in which he had offered incense to all the abo
minable idols ; and the fume thereof went up as a thick cloud, for
the abundance thereof.

1 2. " Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what
the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in
the chambers of his imagery ? for they say, The LORD seeth us
not/'] — Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what
the ancients of Israel, who should be good examples of piety and
holiness to the rest, do in this secret, retired room, unseen, un
noted ; how they heap up gods to themselves, every one accord
ing to his own vain imagination ? For they say, Tush, not only
are we hid from the eyes of men, but even the eyes of the Lord
himself descry us not, &c.

14. "And, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz."] —
And, behold, there sat women, after the manner of the Egyptian

EZEKIEL VIII. 4.— IX. 8.

idolatry, bewailing the loss of Osiris, the husband of their beastly
goddess Isis ; whose superstition was joined with abominable
filthiness.

17. "And, lo, they p'ut the branch to their nose."] — And, lo,
they put forth accursed branches of several wickednesses, to the
just provocation of God's anger unto their own destruction.

IX. 2. " And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher
gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter
weapon in his hand ; and one man among them was clothed with
linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side."] — And, behold, there
appeared six men, according to the number of the six principal
gates of Jerusalem, in representation of so many destroying an
gels, which came from the way of the north, which lieth towards
Chaldea ; and every man had a weapon of slaughter in his hand :
and there was one amongst them resembling the Son of God, the
gracious Mediator betwixt God and man, which was clothed with
linen, to signify his everlasting priesthood ; with a writer's ink-
horn by his side, for the resemblance of his eternal consignation of
his elect, and his careful marking them out for their preservation, &c.

3. " And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the
cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house."] — And
the glorious God of Israel, who had wont to have his seat betwixt
the cherubims which covered the ark, went up from thence, to
show them that he meant to remove away from Israel ; and yet,
not all at once, but by degrees, and therefore he removed first
only to the threshold of the temple, &c.

4. " Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of
Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that
sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the
midst thereof."] — Go through all the streets of Jerusalem, and set
a note or mark of distinction upon all those that sigh and mourn
for all the abominations that are done therein ; that those men
may be mercifully reserved from the common destruction.

7. " And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the
courts with the slain : go ye forth. And they went forth, and
slew in the city."] — And he said unto him, Since my house hath
been so shamefully defiled by idolatries, do not ye spare to defile
it, together with the courts there, with the blood and the carcasses
of the slain.

8. " And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I
was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah, Lord

PARAPHRASE UPOK

GOD!"] — And it came to pass, while in this vision of mine, they
were slaying them, and I was left, beholding this slaughter, that
I fell upon my face, in an humble deprecation of further ven
geance, &c.

X. J . " Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was
above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them as it
were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a
throne."] — Then I looked, and, behold, the appearance of my first
vision was presented unto me : in the firmament that was above
the head of those four angels there appeared the likeness of a
throne, made of a bright and glorious sapphire stone, to signify
the majesty of God, which ovcrruleth and disposeth of all those
heavenly spirits.

2. " And he spake unto the man clothed with linen, and said,
Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill thine
hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims, and scatter
them over the city. And he went in in my sight."] — Then God
Almighty, who sat upon his throne, 'spake unto that angel of the
covenant, who was clothed with linen, as being so the High Priest
of his church, that he is withal the just Judge of the world, and
said unto him, Go thou amongst these angelical representations,
who hast most right to dispose of them, and fill thine hand with
the coals of God's vengeance, not from the altars which thy people
have polluted, but from between the cherubims of heaven, who re
joice to contrive just revenge against wicked men; and scatter
them over the city, that it may be consumed with the fire thereof.

4. " Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub," &c.]
See chapter ix. verse 3.

7. " And one cherub stretched forth his hand from between the
cherubims unto the fire that was between the cherubims, and
took thereof, and put it into the hands of him that was clothed
with linen : who took it, and went out."] — And one of those four
angels stretched forth his hand from between the other cheru
bims, and, reaching to that fire which was ready between the
cherubims, took thereof; and, as an obsequious minister unto
Christ, the Son of God, delivered it into his hand ; who, accord
ing to the charge given him by God, took it, and went out.

9. " And when I looked, behold the four wheels by the cheru
bims, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another
cherub : and the appearance of the wheels was as the colour of a
beryl stone."] So also verse 10. — See chapter i. verse 16.

EZEKIEL X. i— XI. i. 523

ii." When they went, they went upon their four sides ;" &c.]
See chap. i. verse 1 7.

12. " And their whole body, and their backs and their hands,
and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about,
even the wheels that they four had."] — And the whole compass
and frame of the wheels, both in the upper and lower parts
thereof, were full of eyes round about; to show, that however
the course and events of things seem so unstable and uncertain, as
if all things ran upon wheels, and there do also appear a certain
intricateness and perplexity in the proceedings thereof, yet that
the infinite and most wise Providence of God hath foreseen and
foreordained all things to his own holy purposes.

13. " As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing,
0 wheel."] — And the voice of God spake to the wheel in my
hearing, as therein showing that he takes perfect notice of the
events of things, and both gives and judges their motion.

14. " And every one had four faces," &c.] — See chap. i. 10.

1 6. " And when the cherubims went, the wheels went," &c.] —
See chap. i. 12.

1 8. " Then the glory of the LORD departed from off the thresh
old of the house, and stood over the cherubims."] — Then the
Lord removed the testimony of his presence from the temple, and
forsook even the very threshold thereof, and stood on high over
these four cherubims : as signifying, that for the great abomina
tions of Israel he hath withdrawn himself from them.

19. "And the cherubims lifted up their wings, and mounted
up from the earth in my sight : when they went out, the wheels
also were beside them, and every one stood at the door of the east
gate of the LORD'S house ; and the glory of the God of Israel was
over them above."] — And these four cherubims lifted up their
wings and mounted up from the earth, where they seemed for
merly to stand, to heavenward in my sight ; and according to their
motion also the wheels were lifted up, and both the cherubim and
wheels stood over the outer gate of the great court of the temple :
and the glory of the Lord appeared on high above them ; to show,
that now he would no more be sought of them in that material
house, but above in heaven.

XL i. " And brought me unto the east gate of the LORD'S house,
which looketh eastward : and behold at the door of the gate five
and twenty men."] — I was, in vision, brought to the east gate of
the outmost court of the temple ; and, behold, at the door of the

PARAPHRASE UPON

gate there were five and twenty of the selected rulers of Israel, &c.

3. " Which say, It is not near ; let us build houses : this city
is the caldron, and we be the flesh."] — Which say, Tush, this
threatened destruction is far enough off: it was an idle word of
Jeremiah, that this city is the caldron, we the flesh, the Chaldees
the fire ; well and long shall we, for all these menaces, enjoy our
city and ourselves.

7. "Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Your slain whom ye
have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the
caldron : but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it."] — Ye
that so pleasantly scoif at the words of ray prophets, know, that ye
do fulfil them too justly : those men whom your cruelty hath slain
and laid in the midst of your city, they are the flesh ; and this
city is the caldron ; but for you, I will take order you shall not be
boiled within these your walls ; I will cast you out hence, and pre
pare judgment for you elsewhere.

So also verse 1 i .

13. "And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the
son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my face, and cried
with a loud voice, and said."] — And it came to pass when I pro
phesied, that Pelatiah, being a man of great reputation among the
people, and a prime ruler in Israel, died. Then, as in his death
seeing an image of the imminent destruction of the rest, I fell
down upon my face, and said, &c.

15. "Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of
thy kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly, are they unto
whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from
the LORD : unto us is this land given in possession."] — Never com
plain of the taking awav of some noted governors of Israel, as if

*/ O

the whole Church were in danger of extirpation by their loss ; for
both these proud and secure inhabitants of Jerusalem are well
worthy of this judgment; and when they are gone, my Church shall
continue : for those thy brethren and kinsfolk, and the rest of
Israel, which are now in captivity, are they in whom my Church
shall live, and of whom these insolent inhabitants have said, They
are gone far enough from the Lord; as for us, we shall surely con
tinue safe in the land of our possession.

1 6. " Yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries
where they shall come."] — However I have removed them from
my local and material sanctuary, yet will I be to them, in their
exile and captivity, instead of another sanctuary ; for I will both

EZEKIEL XL 3.— XII. 13. 525

protect them, and give them gracious testimonies of my presence
with them.

19. " And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit
within you ; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and
will give them an heart of flesh.1'] — And I will give them an holy
and happy accordance in my truth, and will renew a right spirit
in you , and will take away that perverse and obstinate disposition,
which is naturally in them, to that which is good ; and will give
them a tenderness of heart, such as may make them capable of
the good impressions of my Spirit.

21. " But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of
their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense
their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord GOD/'] — But as
for those that walk on in their wicked and abominable idolatries,
doing those things which may be pleasing to their false gods, I
will requite them according to their deservings, saith the Lord.

23. "And the glory of the LORD went up," &c.] — See chap. x.
verse 18.

XII. 3. "Therefore, thou son of man, prepare thee stuff for
removing, and remove by day in their sight;"] — Therefore, thou
son of man, prepare thee all necessary coramodoties for a re
move, and long exile ; and pack up thy fardels by day, in their
sight, &c.

5 . " Dig thou through the wall in their sight, and carry out
thereby."] — And, that thy very actions may be prophetical, dig
thou through the wall in their sight ; to foreshow unto them, that
they shall not have a free egress out of their city, but shall be
glad to seek all secret evasions to save themselves.

6. " Thou shalt cover thy face, that thou see not the ground :
for I have set \\\eefor a sign unto the house of Israel."] — Thou
shalt hoodwink thyself, and hide thy face, so as that thou see not
the ground ; to foreshow the great anxiety and sorrow where
with the Jews shall depart into their captivity, and, withal, the
excrccation of their king Zedekiah, who shall not behold that
Babylonish earth that he shall tread upon : for I have made
and appointed this act of thine to be a presage of their future
captivity.

n. "Say, I am your sign : like as I have done, so shall it be
done unto them."] — Say, God hath appointed to prefigure and
foresignify in me what he means to do unto you, &c.

13. "My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be

5^6 PARAPHRASE UPON

taken in my snare : and I will bring him to Babylon to the land
of the Chaldeans ; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die
there."] — I will encompass and take him by the forces of the
Chaldees, as a fish is taken by a net, &c. ; and I will bring him to
Babylon ; yet shall he not see the land before him, for his eyes
shall be put out by the king of Babylon ; there shall he live and
die, in a woful blindness.

1 6. "But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from
the famine, and from the pestilence ; that they may declare all
their abominations among the heathen whither they come ; and
they shall know that I am the LORD."] — Those few will I pur
posely leave alive, that they may give glory to me, in confessing
the shameful abominations of their people, which brought all this
fearful desolation upon them ; so as the very heathen may herein
justify me, and know me to be the Lord.

1 8. "Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy
water with trembling and with carefulness."] — Son of man, when
thou eatest thy meals, do thou, in thy feeding, express a kind of
trembling and quaking ; and in thy drinking of water, express a
frightfulness, and amazed suspicion of the approach of an enemy.

22. " Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the
land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision
faileth ?"] — What mean the Jews to mock at thy prophecies, and
to say, Tush, either it will be long ere these things fall out, or
never; they are but vain bugs, wherewith the prophets would
affright us ?

XIII. 3. "Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their
own spirit, and have seen nothing!1'] — Woe unto the foolish pro
phets, that speak of their own heads, even the fancies of their
own brains, and have had no vision at all, nor no commission
from God !

4. " 0 Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts."]
— 0 Israel, thy prophets, taking advantage of the dispersion of
those which might keep them in order, do nothing but spoil and
waste thy poor and miserable remainders ; as foxes are wont to
spoil those vineyards that lie aloof off from their owners.

5. "Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the
hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of
the LORD."] — Where the wickedness of the people had made
breaches in their walls, it had been your part to have made
them up by wholesome doctrine and admonition, that so the judg-

EZEKIEL XII. 1 6.— XIII. 20. 527

ments of God might have been kept out ; but ye have not done
so at all, nor used any wholesome preventions of these evils ; that
so God's people might have been able to stand in the face of their
enemies in the day of battle.

9. " They shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither
shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither
shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I
am the Lord GOD."] — They shall not be admitted, as prophets, in
the assembly of my people ; neither shall they be registered in
the roll of the house of Israel ; neither shall they ever have the
favour to return unto that good land ; but shall live and die out
casts from the holy commonwealth of my Church.

10. " And one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with un-
tempered morter."~\ — One laid false grounds of comfort, and the
other flourished them over with unsound and plausible pretences.

ii." Say unto them which daub it with untempered morter,
that it shall fall : there shall be an overflowing shower ; and ye^
O great hailstones, shall fall ; and a stormy wind shall rend it."]
Say unto them which lay these false and tottering grounds, that
they shall fall, how fair soever they seem : their false doctrine of
peace shall be beaten down by that inundation, that storm and
tempest of the Chaldees, which shall come in upon them.

18." And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD ; Woe to the women
that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the
head of every stature to hunt souls ! Will ye hunt the souls of my
people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you ?"] —
Woe to the false prophetesses also, that speak pleasing and
plausible words to all hearers, and fit every man's humour with
their flattering divinations, purposely that they may entrap and
beguile miserable souls ! Will ye persist thus to beguile and en
snare the silly souls of your followers, and will you take upon you
to pronounce sentences of life and good speed where you please ?

70. " Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD ; Behold, I am
against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make
them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the
souls go," &c.] — I am against those your fraudulent insinuations
and plausible falsehoods, wherewith ye deceive and betray the
souls of men : I will utterly frustrate and shame these your cun
ning suggestions, and deliver those souls which ye have ensnared
therewith.

So also verse 2 1 .

528 PARAPHRASE UPON

22. " Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous
sad, whom I have not made sad ; and strengthened the hands of the
wicked,"] — Because with lying prophecies ye have made the
heart of my faithful people sad, in terrifying them with those
evils which shall not come ; and encouraged wicked men. by se-
curino- them against those evils which shall surely fall upon
them, &c.

23. " Therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine divina
tions : for I will deliver my people out of your hand : and ye
shall know that I am the LORD."] — Therefore I will so shame
and confound you, that ye shall not dare to broach any more of
your lying divinations ; and my people whom ye have hitherto
deluded, now being sufficiently assured of your falsehood, shall be
delivered from the danger of your deceits.

XIV. 3. " Son of man, these men have set up their idols in
their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before
their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?"] — Son of
man, these men have given up their hearts to idolatry ; and have
wilfully laid blocks of iniquity before their own faces, that they
may stumble thereat and fall ; contemptuously rejecting my coun
sels and ordinances : and is it fit that such miscreants should
come, as these hypocritically do, to inquire aught from me '{

4. " I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the
multitude of his idols."] — I the Lord will answer him that cometh ;
but not as he expecteth and desireth ; rather, according to his
deservings, in judgment and indignation, for those many and abo
minable idolatries whereof he is guilty.

5. " That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart."] —
That I may convince the house of Israel in their own hearts, of
their foul impiety and abominable wickedness, &c.

8. " And I will set my face against that man, and will make
him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of
my people."] — I will oppose myself against that man, and inflict
sensible judgments upon him, and will make him a fearful exam
ple of my just revenge, in every man's mouth, &c.

9. '•' And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a
thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch
out my hand upon him."] — And if the prophet be deceived when
he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord, in my just judgment, have
given up that prophet to deceit, for a punishment, both of his own
sin and of the notorious wickedness of the people ; and I will ac-

EZEKIEL XIII. 22.— XVI. 3. 529

cordingly stretch out my hand against him, in executing my ven
geance upon him, &c.

i o. ' c And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity."] —
And the people also, which trusted to the counsels and predic
tions of those false prophets, shall be duly punished for their ini
quity, &c.

13. " Will break the staff of the bread," &c ] — See Lev. xxvi. 26.

14. " Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were
in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteous
ness, saith the Lord GOD."] — Though there were men never so
gracious with me, amongst you ; even Noah, whom I saved from
the deluge ; Daniel, whom I saved from the common slaughter of
the Chaldean wise men, and after from the lions ; Job, whom I
delivered from those extreme sufferings, under the hand of Satan,
and whose intercession I accepted for his friends ; yet, they should
no otherwise prevail with me, but for the preserving and rescue
of their own lives, by their righteousness, saith the Lord.

22. " Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be
brought forth, both sons and daughters : behold, they shall come
forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings : and
ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought
upon Jerusalem."] — Yet, behold, all shall not be thus destroyed ;
but there shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth into
captivity in your sight ; behold, they shall be brought forth unto
you ; and ye shall well see their ways and doings to have been
so abominable, as that ye shall willingly justify my proceedings
against them, in all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem.

So also verse 23 .

XV. 2, 3, 4. " Son of man, What is the vine tree more than any
tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest ?
Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work ? or will men take a
pin of it to hang any vessel thereon ? Behold, it is cast into the
fire for fuel."] — The vine is a noble plant in respect of the fruit
it bears, but in regard of the wood thereof no shrub is so mean ; it
is so far from yielding boards or timber, as that there cannot so
much as a pin be made of it to hang aught thereon. Lo, such is
Israel ; if it bore good fruit, it would be dear and precious to me ;
but in itself, it is but mean and base in comparison of other na
tions, and that which is unfit for any service : it is only meet to
be cast into the fire for fuel, &c.

XVI. 3. "And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem,

BP. HALL, VOL. Ill, M in

530 PARAPHRASE UPON

Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan ; thy father
was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite."]— Never brag of
thy descent from Abraham : no, thou hast so utterly degenerated
from the faith and obedience of that holy patriarch, that thou
hast justly forfeited all thy claim of him : rather thy birth and
thy nativity may and must be derived from those Canaanites into
whose corrupt manners thou art declined ; and so art thou incor
porated into their wicked corruptions, as if thy father were an
Amorite, thy mother an Hittite, neither of them of the chosen
and holy seed.

4. " And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy
navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple
thee ; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all."] — And in
how miserable a condition I found thee, all the world knoweth ;
even utterly languishing under the Egyptian servitude : so as thy
case was no less desperate than that of a newborn child, whose
navel is not cut, and to whom the midwife performeth not those
offices which are necessary for the first entrance and entertain
ment in the world.

5. "None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have
compassion upon thee ; but thou wast cast out in the open field,
to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born."] —
No eye pitied thee, or was inclined to show thee any mercy, or
do thee any favour at all ; yea rather thou wert hated and de
spised by thine hosts and neighbours of Egypt; and wert left
forlorn to the cruelty and scorn and intolerable oppression of
those thy tyrannical persecutors.

6. " And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine
own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live ;
yea, I said unto thee when thou tuast in thy blood, Live.'1] — And
when, looking down from heaven, I saw thee in this woful and
loathsome plight, given up by the world as lost, I then took com
passion on thee, and even then, in thine utmost extremity, deter
mined thy preservation, and said, Yet Israel shall live.

7. "And thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art
come to excellent ornaments : thy breasts are fashioned, and thine
hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare."] — I have so
blessed thee, that thou not only enjoyest life, but withal art plen
tifully stored with those favours and benefits which serve for
pleasure and ornament ; and thou art now grown to a great per
fection of knowledge and profession, whereas before thou wert
utterly destitute of all good things.

EZEKIEL XVI. 4-25. 531

8. " Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold,
thy time was the time of love ; and I spread my skirt over thee."]
— And now, when thou wert thus beautified by my graces and
favours, I began to pass my affection upon thee, as that Church
whom I would espouse to myself; and immediately professed my
self to be thy Spiritual Husband ; contracting myself unto thee by
a firm covenant, mutually passed betwixt us ; and thou becamest
my peculiar people.

9. "Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed
away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil."] — Then
I sanctified thee from thy natural corruptions, and cleansed thee
from thy sins, and gave thee the anointing of my Spirit.

10. "I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee
with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I
covered," &c.] — And decked thee with all those varieties of graces
and virtues which I plentifully communicated unto thee.

So also vers. 11,12, and part of 13.

13. "Thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou
wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom."]
— I did not only make outward provisions for thee, but I fed thee
also spiritually with those heavenly delicates of my sacraments ;
and thou wert become glorious and beautiful in the eyes of the
world, and now, of an obscure and despised handful, wert grown
up into a kingdom.

15. " But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst
the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornica
tions on every one that passed by ; his it was."] — And now, being
thus favoured and graced by me, thou grewest proud of thine own
worth, and forgattest me, and gavest thyself over to all unclean-
ness ; and now, being sought to as some famous courtesan, thou
hast yielded over thyself to the spiritual fornications of all the
nations round about thee.

1 6. "And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy
high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon :
the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so"~\ — And thou
hast abused my graces unto wantonness : those ornaments of wit,
of strength, of wealth, which I had bestowed upon thee, thou
hast turned to the countenancing and furtherance of gross idola
tries :

So also vers. 17, 1 8, 19, &c.

25. "And hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by,

M 111 2

532 PARAPHRASE UPON

and multiplied thy whoredoms/'] — Thou hast communicated in
idolatry with every nation that hath had any intercourse with
thee.

26. " Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians
thy neighbours, great of flesh ; and hast increased thy whoredoms,
to provoke me to anger."] — Thou hast both renewed leagues and
interchanged idolatries with the Egyptians, which are noted for
monstrous in this impiety, and hast increased thy spiritual whore
doms above measure.

28. "Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians,
because thou wast unsatiable."] — The like wickedness hast thou
also committed with the Assyrians, as if thy lust after idols were
utterly unsatiable, &c.

So also ver. 29.

30. " How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing
thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish
woman!"] — How hast thou even spent and exhausted thyself
with this odious filthiness, saith the Lord ; as some notorious and
most infamous strumpet !

37. "And will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they
may see all thy nakedness."] — I will put thee to shame and con
fusion before the faces of those which consorted with thee in thine
idolatries.

41. "And I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot,
and thou also shalt give no hire any more.""] — I will so judge
thee, that thou shalt be disabled from any further commission of
this spiritual whoredom ; and shall be stripped of any power to
give the hire of fornication to thy mercenary lovers.

42. " So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my
jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be
no more angry."] — So will I abundantly satisfy myself with that
revenge which I shall take of thee, as that my fury and jealousy
shall be at an end, as having no further object to work upon.

43. " Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth,
but hast fretted me in all these things ,• behold, therefore, I also
will recompense thy way upon thine head," &c.] — Because thou
hast not remembered both the favours that I did thee and the
covenants that thou madest with me in thy youth, but hast pro
voked me in all these things, I will bring thy deserved judgments
upon thee, and will make thee sure enough from adding this lewd-
ness to thine other abominations.

EZEKIEL XVI. 26-53. 533

44. " Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this pro
verb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter."]
— Thy notorious sins shall be the ordinary byword and tabletalk
of the world, who shall say, As is the mother Canaan, so is the
daughter Judah.

45. "Thou art thy mother's daughter, that lotheth her hus
band and her children ; and thou art the sister of thy sisters,
which lothed their husbands and their children : your mother was
an Hittite, and your father an Amorite."] — Thou art just thy
mothers daughter, like her in wickedness and sin ; as she, so
thou hast cast off thy God, and hatest all those that pertain unto
him ; and the whole family of you is all of one and the same
strain : thy sister is of no other disposition : your mother, in re
spect of your manners and condition, was an Hittite and your
father an Amorite.

46. " And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters
that dwell at thy left hand : and thy younger sister, that dwelleth
at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters."] — And thine
eldest sister is Samaria, or the Ten Tribes of Israel; she, and
those her daughter cities, that lie to the north : and thy younger
sister, that dwells to the southward, is Sodom, and the cities ap
pertaining to her.

47. " Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after
their abominations."] — Yet thou hast not contented thyself to do
after the example of their abominations ; but, &c.

49. " Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride,
fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness."] — Behold, these were
the most eminent sins of thy sister Sodom, even pride, excess of
diet, extreme idleness and security ; and want of respect and
mercy to the poor and needy, &c.

51. "And hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations
which thou hast done."] — Thou hast made thy sisters' wicked
nesses to appear small in comparison of thine.

52. " Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own
shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable
than they."] — Thou which hast passed thy sentence upon the foul
sins of Sodom and Samaria, now make account to undergo the
shame and judgment which thy own greater and more abominable
sins have deserved, &c.

53. " When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of
Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her

534 PARAPHRASE UPON

daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives
in the midst of them."] — And if the captivity of Sodom, and that
of Samaria, and the towns round about them both, shall be ever
reversed, then look that thine also, 0 Judah, shall be so ; but, as
there is no possibility in their return, so there is none in thine.

56> 57- "For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy
mouth in the day of thy pride, before thy wickedness was dis
covered, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria,
and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines,
which despise thee round about."] — Thou never thoughtest of the
judgment which I brought upon thy sister Sodom, in raining fire
and brimstone upon their heads, while thou wert transported with
thy security and pride, before that God, by his inflicted judg
ments, brought forth thy wickedness to the notice of the world;
and before he made thee a reproach to the Syrians and their
neighbouring nations, and to the Philistines, and the people ad
joining ; all which have despitefully insulted upon thee.

61. "Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed,
when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger :
and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy
covenant."] — Then shalt thou bethink thyself, and recall to re
membrance those wicked ways Avherein thou hast walked, and be
ashamed : when thou shalt also adjoin unto thee the Gentiles, as
partners of thy happy conversion ; whom thou shalt be a means
to bring home into my Church, but not by virtue of any covenant
of thine, but of my own, which is the New Covenant that I shall
make with my chosen under the Gospel.

63 . " That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and
never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame."] — That
thou mayest remember thy old wickednesses, and be soundly hum
bled under the sense of them, and not have a word to say for thy
self, because of the shame of thy former vileness, &c.

XVII. 3. "And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; A great eagle
with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had divers
colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the
cedar ;"] — Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, is a great eagle :
his long wings and many feathers are his several dominions ;
whose divers colours are the rites and various forms of govern
ment in those sundry nations : he came into Judea, where Leba
non is renowned and conspicuous ; and took away king Jechoniah,
the highest branch of the cedars there :

EZEKIEL XVI. 56, 57.— XVII. 22. 535

4. " He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it
into a land of traffick; he set it in a city of merchants."] — He
cropped off the top of his young twigs, all their prime nobility and
able soldiery, and carried them into captivity, and set them in
Babylon.

5. " He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a
fruitful field ; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow
tree."] — He took also of the seed royal, even Zedekiah, and
planted him in the fruitful land of Judea, where he had store of
means to have lived and flourished.

6. " And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature,
whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were
under him : so it became a vine," &c.] — And he grew up, and
prospered exceedingly, and became a great and wealthy prince,
howsoever tributary to Babylon : both his family and his power
were greatly enlarged.

7. " There was also another great eagle with great wings and
many feathers : and, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward
him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water
it by the furrows of her plantation."] — There was also another
great king, of ample dominions and mighty power, even the king
of Egypt : and, behold, Zedekiah thus set up by Nebuchadnezzar,
yet did unthankfully incline unto and rely upon that king of
Egypt, to be supported by him in his revolt.

8. "It was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it
might bring forth branches."] — He was, if he could have kept
him so, well planted in his own soil, which was rich and plen
tiful, &c.

9. "Say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Shall it prosper?
shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof,
that it wither ?"] — Thus saith the Lord, Shall this man prosper in
his treachery and ingratitude? No; that great monarch from
whom he is revolted shall take just revenge on him, and shall
utterly defeat and root him out, &c.

So also verse 10.

22. "Thus saith the Lord GOD ; I will also take of the highest
branch of the high cedar, and will set it ; I will crop off from the
top of his young twigs a tender one," &c.] — Thus saith the Lord,
I will at the last work out the delivery and redemption of my
people : out of the seed of David will I raise up the Messiah, and
set him on high in mine holy Church.

536 PARAPHRASE UPON

23. " In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it :
and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly
cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the
shadow/' &c.] — Even in my glorious evangelical Church will I
exalt his power ; and he shall spread my Gospel, and enlarge his
spiritual dominions all the world over; and all his elect shall
shroud themselves under his grace and protection, &c.

24. " And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD
have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have
dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish :
I the LOED have spoken and have done it."] — And all the people
of the earth shall know that I have brought down the proud and
mighty tyrants of the world, and have exalted this meek and
despised Saviour of mankind above every name that is named in
heaven and in earth.

XVIII. 2. " The fathers have eaten sour grapes," &c.] — See
Jer. xxxi. ver. 29.

4. " Behold, all souls are mine ; as the soul of the father, so
also the soul of the son is mine : the soul that sinneth, it shall
die.1'] — Ye have no reason to murmur against me, as either par
tial or rigorous ; for, are not all souls the work of my creation,
one as well as another ? and hath riot every workman a will to
wish well to his own handiwork ? were it not therefore for sin, no
soul should die.

5. " But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and
right."] —But if a man do sincerely apply himself to the keeping
of God's law, and carefully endeavour to do that which is just
and right.

6. " And hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted
up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled
his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous
woman."] — And hath not given way to superstitious and idola
trous sacrifices, neither hath given any worship to the idols of
Israel, nor hath suffered himself to be defiled with adultery, nor
hath been polluted with that legal uncleanness of unseasonable
copulation with a woman set apart for her disease.

8. "He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath
taken any increase."] — He that hath not given forth his money
upon usury, neither hath upon any pretence taken increase from
the hands of the borrower, &c.

10. " If he beget a son that is a robber, a shedder of blood,

EZEKIEL XVII. 23.— XVIII. 23. 537

and that doeth the like to any one of these things"'] — If now this
upright man beget a son that is a robber, or a murderer, or is
guilty of any other notorious violation of God's law.

ii. " And that doeth not any of those duties, but even hath
eaten upon the mountains, and defiled his neighbour's wife."] — And
doth not set himself to do any of the holy duties required, but
yieldeth to idolatrous practices, and to adulteries and other un-
cleannesses.

13. " Shall he then live? he shall not live."]— Shall that son,
because he is descended of holy and good parents, live, and have
the blessings of a comfortable life continued unto him ? No ; he
shall not live, &c.

14. "Now, lo, iflie beget a son, that seeth all his father's sins
which he hath done, and considereth, and doeth not such like."] —
Now if this degenerated and wicked man beget a son, that seeth
these sins of his father, and upon due consideration avoideth and
abhorreth all his evil ways.

20. " The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not
bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the
iniquity of the son : the righteousness of the righteous shall be
upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him/']
— No soul shall be adjudged to death for any sin but his own :
that universal contagion of our first parents' sin hath spread itself
over every soul, and by our propriety [property] therein hath made
us liable to death; but in our personal derivation from our following
parents, there can be no guilt of death to any man : the son shall
not be condemned to death for the sin of the father, &c. : but he
that doeth righteously shall speed well with God, and be gra
ciously accepted ; he that doeth evil shall receive according to the
wickedness he hath committed.

21. " But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath
committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful
and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die."] — If that man
who hath been formerly wicked shall now prove truly penitent,
and turn from all his sins, and hereafter live holily and conscion-
ably in this present world, he shall surely live, and not die.

So verse 22.

23. " Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die ?
saith the Lord GOD : and not that he should return from his ways
and live?"] — Is it any pleasure to me that men should be wicked,
or that those which are now wicked men should die everlastingly ?

538 PARAPHRASE UPON

saith the Lord God. Is it not rather my desire, that men should
repent, and that the repentant should live ? Is not this the very
sum of my Gospel which I send into the world ? Do not I call,
and cry, and sue to men, that they would return from their sins,
and be saved ?

24. " But when the righteous turneth away from his right
eousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the
abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live ? All his
righteousness that he hath done, shall not be mentioned : in his
trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned,
in them shall he die."] — But when that man, who hath all the
while carried himself righteously and unreprovably, shall now,
as being weary of his holy courses, turn away from his upright
disposition and conversation, and give himself over to all those
abominations which wicked men commit ; shall that man, by virtue
of his former inoffensive carriage, live ? No ; all his formerly pro
fessed righteousness shall be forgotten, and quite unregarded ;
and he shall be dealt with according to the present condition of
his sin.

So also verse 26.

XIX. 2. " And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down
among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions."] —
What is Judea thy mother, even the whole land wherein thou
dwellest ? She is no better than a fierce and cruel lioness ; she
consorted with other merciless and cruel nations, and framed herself
and her people accordingly.

3. "And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a
young lion, and it learned to catch the prey ; it devoured men."]
— She brought forth one amongst the rest, noted for a lion-like
disposition, even Jehoahaz, the son of good Josiah, who tyrannized
for a time over his people.

4. " The nations also heard of him ; he was taken in their pit,
and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt."] —
Insomuch as the neighbour nations heard the fame of his misgo-
vernment ; and set upon him, and took him violently away, and
brought him captive in chains unto Egypt.

5. "Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope
was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a
young lion."] — Then when she saw herself disappointed of the
hope of his success, she set up another of the seed royal, by the
allowance of Pharaoh Necho ; even Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah.

EZEKIEL XVIII. 24.— XIX. 14. 539

6. " And he went up and down among the lions, he became a
young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men."]
— And he ruled fiercely and wickedly amongst his people ; and
followed those courses of oppression and violence which his bro
ther had led him to.

7. "And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste
their cities ; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by
the noise of his roaring."] — And he usurped and took to hinself
their widowed palaces; and laid waste their populous cities, through
his cruel extortions ; yea, he made the whole land desolate, and
by his unmerciful exactions and cruel menaces exhausted the ful
ness thereof.

8. "Then the nations set against him on every side from the
provinces, and spread their net over him : he was taken in their
pit."] — Then the nations, being moved with his insolency, set
against him on every side, and, both by force and policy, sur
prised him, and he was captived by them.

10. "Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the
waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of
many waters."] — Thy mother is like a vine in the time of her
first peaceable plantation, set in a moist and fruitful soil, and
thereupon yielded abundance of branches, and those branches
abundance of grapes

j i . " And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that
bare rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches,
and she appeared in her height by the multitude of her branches."]
And she brought forth many and potent princes, which bore rule
over my people ; and she grew populous and mighty, famous and
renowned amongst the nations about her.

12. "But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to
the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit ; her strong rods
were broken and withered ; the fire consumed them."] — But now,
through her unanswerableness to God's proceedings with her and
to her own good beginnings, she is justly plucked up in fury, and
cast down to the greund, and dried up, and withered, with the
severe judgments of the Almighty : her princes and all those of
her blood royal are consumed and utterly rooted out.

13. "And now she is planted in the wilderness."] — And now
she is carried away in a woful captivity, to be planted in the
barren wilderness of Babylon, &c.

14. " And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath

540 PARAPHRASE UPON

devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be' a, sceptre
to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation."]
— And a destruction is risen from among themselves, even from
the treachery of Zedekiah, which hath utterly consumed the
remainders of her hopes ; so that now there is no more likeli
hood of any of the royal blood -to be exalted to her govern
ment, &c.

XX. 4. " Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge
them ? cause them to know the abominations of their fathers."]
"\Vilt thou any more denounce and inculcate my despised judg
ments unto them? or wilt thou plead with me for them any
more? No; rather lay before them the abominations of their
fathers ; and so leave them to their deserved punishments.

5. "When I lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the house
of Jacob," &c.] — When I solemnly swore by myself, for the
confirmation of that covenant which I made with the seed of
Jacob, &c.

7. " Cast ye away every man the abomination of his eyes," &c.]
— Cast ye away, every one of you, those abominable idols which
your eyes have seen and affected.

12. " Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign
between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD
that sanctify them."] — Moreover also, as I gave them, together
with the rest, a royal law, which was written in the very heart of
man ; so 1 did peculiarly give them my sabbaths, as a special
cognizance of my people, whereby they might be known to be
severed from all others, and might have this bond of sanctifying
my name above all other nations.

25. " Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good,
and judgments whereby they should not live;"] — Wherefore I
did, in my just judgment, give them up to their own inventions,
so as they made to themselves wicked laws, and perverted their
ways before me ;

26. " And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they
caused to pass through the fire all that opened the womb."] —
And I yielded them over to a pollution with their own gifts and
oblations, so as in those things wherein they vainly hoped and
pretended to please me, they foully defiled themselves, namely,
in their superstitious and idolatrous lustrations, wherewith they
wickedly thought to consecrate the fruit of their womb, &c.

27. Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they

EZEKIEL XX. 4-40. 541

have committed a trespass against me.''] — Yet in this your fa
thers have shamefully reproached me, in that, being so graciously
dealt with by me, yet they demeaned themselves wickedly and
rebelliously against me.

28. "For when I had brought them into the land, for the
which I lifted up mine hand to give it to them, then they saw
every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there
their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their
offering."] — For when I had brought them into the land of Ca
naan, which I had promised and swore to give unto them, they
cast their eyes upon those hills and groves wherein the heathen
had wont to offer their idolatrous sacrifices ; and there, contrary
to my commandment, they made their sinful oblations, to provoke
me to wrath against them, &c.

29. " Then I said unto them, What is the high place where-
unto ye go ?"] — Notwithstanding that I dissuaded them from these
idolatrous courses, and sharply reproved them, expostulating
with them the vanity and wickedness of these services of theirs ;
What mean you thus to frequent your forbidden altars ? Do you
not know that I have confined my worship to one place ? Why
will ye thus wilfully transgress my law ? &c.

35. "And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people,
and there will I plead with you face to face."] — And I will bring
you into the desert land of your captivity under the heathen, and
there will I argue this case with you ; laying before you those
offences wherewith you have justly provoked me.

37. " And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will
bring you into the bond of the covenant."] — I will cause you to
pass under the rod, both of my correction and my guidance ; and
will recall you to the memory and recognition of that bond of
mutual covenant which hath been made betwixt us.

39. " As for you, 0 house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD ;
Go ye, serve ye every one his idols."] — As for you, 0 ye house
of Israel, thus saith the Lord ; I will have none of your half-
services ; never hope to divide betwixt me and your idols ; since ye
will not be wholly mine, go ye, serve ye every one his idols, &c.

40. " For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height
of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel,
all of them in the land, serve me : there will I accept them, and
there will I require your offerings," &c.j — But for you, that are
the true spiritual seed of faithful Israel, ye shall all serve me in

542 PARAPHRASE UPON

mine holy Church ; and I will both expect and graciously accept
of those services and devotions which ye shall offer unto me.
So also verses 41 and 42.

46. " Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy
word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the
south field;"] — Son of man, turn thy face toward Jerusalem,
which lieth southward from the land where thou art, and utter
thy words towards that coast; and prophesy against the sinful
land of Israel, which hath been as some wild forest in those
southern parts;

47. "And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the
LOKD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in
thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry
tree."] — And say to the land of Israel, Hear the word of the
Lord, &c. I will bring a grievous destruction upon thee by the
hand of thy merciless enemies, which, like a furious and un
quenchable fire, shall utterly consume thee, &c.

So verse 48.

49. " Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! they say of me, Doth he not
speak parables?"] — Then said I, Ah Lord God, this perverse peo
ple are apt to take exceptions against me ; and now they quarrel
me for the obscurity of my prophecies, and say, This man speaks
riddles and parables : we know not what he means.

XXI. 2. " Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem."] — Lo,
then, without all parables, I say unto thee plainly, 0 thou son of
man, set thy face towards Jerusalem, &c.

4. " Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and
the wicked."] — I will make no spare at all ; but will sweep away
every living man in the common destruction, even the righteous
and the wicked : the righteous will I remove to their advantage
and glory, the wicked to their utter confusion, &c.

5. " That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth
my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any more."] —
That all flesh may know it is my judgment that is thus severely
and unpartially executed upon Israel.

6. " Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy
loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes."] — Sigh thou
therefore, O thou son of man, sigh so deeply and strongly as to
break thy girdle from thy loins ; and by this^ sighing of thine
intimate unto them that great sorrow which is coming upon them.

10. "It contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree."] —

EZEKIEL XX. 46.— XXI. 23. 543

This sharp sword is not for correction, or for the pruning of su
perfluities, which I am wont to practise upon my beloved chil
dren, but for an utter excision both of stock and branches ; and
will leave no way either for the amendment or for the being of
any in Israel.

13. " Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contemn
even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord GOD."] — Be
cause it shall be a fiery trial indeed ; and what if this sword scorn
to rest in an affliction only of my people, but shall at once cut
them off that they shall be no more? Surely thus it shall do, saith
the Lord God.

17. "I will cause my fury to rest."] — See chap. xvi. ver. 42.

19, 20. " Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that
the sword of the king of Babylon may come : both twain shall
come forth out of one land : and choose thou a place, choose it at
the head of the way to the city. Appoint a way, that the sword
may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jeru
salem the defenced."] — Describe thou in a table a draught of two
ways, by which the sword of the king of Babylon may come : let
the ways run on together, as coming from one place ; and then,
when they come to the parting of them, let one way lead to Rab
bath the city of the Ammonites, and another to Jerusalem the
chief and defenced city of Judah.

21." For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way,
at the head of the two ways, to use divination."] — For the king
of Babylon shall stand at the parting of two ways ; and, being in
a doubt whether way to take, shall use divinations for his direc
tion, &c.

22. " At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to
appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter."] — The
sorcerers and soothsayers shall agree upon his assaulting of Je
rusalem ; and shall thereupon give him advice to prepare for that
siege, to attempt the sacking and destruction thereof with all
courage and violence.

23. " And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their
sight, to them that have sworn oaths : but he will call to remem
brance the iniquity, that they may be taken."] — But this pro
phecy of thine shall seem to them as a false prediction, even to
them which have dared to swear the certainty of the contrary
success ; but this great enemy will reckon with them for all their
former iniquity, and they shall be surprised with judgment.

544 PARAPHRASE UPON

25, 26. " And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose
day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, thus saith the
Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this
shall not be the same : exalt him that is low, and abase him that
is high."] — And thou, 0 profane and wicked prince of Israel,
Zedekiah, whose time of just punishment is now come, wherein
thine iniquity shall be called to a full account and despatch, thus
saith the Lord ; Take away the kingdom from that treacherous
prince : he shall not rule any more : let Jechoniah, who is now
unregarded, be exalted ; and let Zedekiah, who is now advanced,
be brought low.

27. "I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it : and it shall be no
more, until he come whose right it is ; and I will give it him."] —
I will utterly overturn for ever this kingdom of Judah and Israel ;
and it shall never be erected any more until the Messiah come
whose right it is ; and to him will I spiritually give it.

28. "And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the
Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their re
proach ;"] — Thus saith the Lord concerning the Ammonites, and
that their reproach which they have been ever apt to cast upon
my people ; even thus say, Even for you, O ye children of Am-
mon, is the sword also prepared, &c.

29. Whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles they divine a lie
unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain,
of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have
an end."] — While thy wizards feed thee with false predictions,
to stir thee up against those already miserable and distressed Is
raelites, against those wicked revolters from me, whose judgment
is now to be fully accomplished.

30. " Shall I cause it to return into his sheath ? I will judge
thee in the place where thou wast created in the land of thy na
tivity."] — Shall I cause that slaughter of thine to cease ? No ; I
will inflict this vengeance upon thee in thy very home, in the place
where thou wert born and bred.

31." And I will pour out mine indignation upon thee, I will
blow against thee in the fire of my wrath."] — I will come against
thee like a mighty and terrible tempest in the fierce fury of my
wrath, &c.

XXII. 2. " Wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city T]
— See chap. xx. ver. 4.

9. " In thee they eat upon the mountains."] — In the midst of

EZEKIEL XXI. 25.— XXIII. 2. 545

thee there are those that offer idolatrous sacrifices to their false
gods in their high places.

10. " In thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness :
in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollu
tion."] — Amongst thy people there are those who have com
mitted filthiness with their own parents, and have lien with those
women which have been separated for their legal or natural un-
cleannesses.

18. " Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross :
all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the
furnace ; they are even the dross of silver."] — Son of man, the
house of Israel was to me as the most precious metal, but now it
is shamefully degenerated into dross; and the best of them is
either extremely iinbased with their sins, or else become nothing
but mere offal and corruption.

19, 20. " Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye are
all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the
midst of Jerusalem."] — Behold therefore, saith the Lord, be
cause ye are thus depraved, I will deal with you accordingly : I
will gather you all up as into one furnace, which shall be Jeru
salem ; and there I will send the fire of my judgment upon you,
and consume you.

So verses 21, 22.

24. " Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is "
not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation."] —
Thou art a land notoriously unclean with thine abominable sins,
and therefore shalt be seized upon by my judgments without
mitigation : when my fire shall flame up to consume thee, there
shall not be so much as a shower of rain to fall upon thee, for the
quenching thereof.

28. "And her prophets have daubed them with untempered
morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them."] — Their
prophets have soothed them up in their sins, and in a base
flattery have spoken plausible tidings to them, no less false than
pleasing, &c.

30. " And I sought for a man among them, that should make
up the hedge," &c.] — I sought for some faithful and innocent man
amongst them, that might stand up and intercede with me for the
removal or protraction of my judgments, &c.

XXIII. 2. " Son of man, there were two women, the daughters
of one mother."] — Son of man, Israel and Judah, which were in

BP. HALL, VOL. III. N n

546 PARAPHRASE UPON

their original but one people, now, since their division, were and
are two daughters of one and the same mother.

3. "And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they com
mitted whoredoms in their youth : there were their breasts
pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity."] —
They began to learn and practise idolatries in the land of Egypt ;
even from their first entrance into the calling of my people:
there and then were they corrupted with the gross superstitions
of the heathen.

4. " And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aho-
libah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and
daughters. Thus ivere their names ; Samaria is Aholah, and
Jerusalem Aholibah."] — Both of these divided people had their
names from a tent or tabernacle : Israel, or the ten tribes, which
is the greater part, is Ahola, His Own Tabernacle; which she
would needs erect, according to her own device, to draw away
clients from my temple : Judah is Aholibah, My Tent, or Taber
nacle, fixed in her, because of the place of my worship settled
there : and both of these have their denominations from the two
chief cities in them ; Samaria the chief city of Israel is Aholah,
and Jerusalem the chief city of Judah is Aholibah.

5. " And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine ; and
she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours."] —
And Israel, which is Aholah, played the spiritual harlot, while she
professed to be mine ; and was miscarried into gross idolatry by
the Assyrians her neighbours.

6. " Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of
them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses."] —
Which were rich and proudly set forth ; men of great account,
both for their wealth and power and valour.

8. " Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt : for
in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of
her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her."] — Neither
yet did she give over those superstitions which she brought with
her out of Egypt ; for in her first beginnings they corrupted
her with their idolatrous services, and infected her with their
abominations.

10. " She became famous among women.1"] — And she became
a noted and remarkable example of God's judgments amongst the
nations.

ii." And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more

EZEKIEL XXIII. 3- 21. 547

corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms
more than her sister in her whoredoms."] — And when Judah and
Jerusalem saw this, instead of being warned by her sister Israel,
she drew her wicked practices into example, and became more
lewd and idolatrous than she.

12. " She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains
and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding," &c.] —
She also fell into a sinful league with the Assyrians, and into love
of their idolatries ; being besotted with the admiration of their
wealth and power and bravery.

14, 15, 1 6. "For when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall,
the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, girded
with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their
heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the
Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity : and as soon
as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent
messengers unto them into Chaldea."] — For when she did but see
the pictures of the Chaldeans set forth in lively colours by the
hand of the painter, ere she was acquainted with their persons ;
she did no sooner see their habit and gorgeous attire, wherein
they were set forth like so many princes to grace them in the
eyes of the beholders, according to the proud fashions of the
Babylonians of Chaldea, where they were born and bred ; but
presently, upon the first sight, like a wanton strumpet, she fell
into extreme love with them and dotage upon them; in such
sort, that she could not be at rest till she had sent ambassadors
into Chaldea to treat of a league with them.

17. "And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love,
and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted
with them, and her mind was alienated from them."] — And those
Babylonians easily condescended to the motion, and entered into
terms of friendship with her ; and by this means had opportunity
to infect her with their foul idolatries.

20. " For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as
the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses."] —
For she was besotted with a lust after their spiritual whoredoms,
who were most notoriously idolatrous, even above the common
rank of the other heathen.

21. " Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy
youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy
youth."] — Thus thou didst revive and recall the lewd abominations

N n 2

548 PARAPHRASE UPON

of thy first times ; when the Egyptians denied thee with their
wicked idolatry.

22. "Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from
whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee
on every side."] — Behold, I will stir up against thee those nations
upon whom thou wert so fond, to beleague thyself with them ;
with whom thou art now fallen out, and art at deadly defiance ;
and I will bring them to invade thee on every side.

25. " They shall take away thy nose and thine ears ; and thy
remnant shall fall by the sword."] — They shall set upon thee the
marks of thine adultery ; they shall slit thy nose and thine ears
for an harlot; and those that shall escape the shameful reproaches
of their whoredom shall fall by the sword, &c.

26. " They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take
away thy fair jewels."] — They shall strip thee of all thine orna
ments, and carry away all that wealth wherein thou hast prided
thyself.

27. Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy
whoredom brought from the land of Egypt."] — Thus will I make
thee past the danger of committing lewdness against me any more,
and of renewing thine old Egyptian idolatries, &c.

31. "Therefore will I give her cup into thine hand."] — I will
make thee take deep of those grievous judgments which thy sister
Israel hath tasted of.

So also verses 32, 33, 34.

34. " Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out."] — See Isa.li. 1 7.

Ibid. " And thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off
thine own breasts."] — And how madly discontented soever thou
shalt be with this judgment, yet shalt thou not be able to put
it off; but shalt rather, in thine indignation, tear thine own
breasts, &c.

40. "And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come
from far, unto whom a messenger was sent ; and, lo, they came :
for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deck-
edst thyself with ornaments."] — And furthermore, that, like a
petulant harlot inflamed with lust, thou hast sent thy pandar-like
messengers afar off to fetch thine idolatrous paramours unto thee ;
for whose lewd entertainment thou didst make all kind of lasci
vious preparation, addressing thyself to work this spiritual wick
edness with them.

So also verse 41.

EZEKIEL XXIII. 23.— XXIV. 6. 549

42. " And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her :
and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from
the wilderness," &c.] — Yea, not only these choice idolaters were
sought unto, but even the common rabble of all the most de
bauched heathens were brought unto thce for the employment of
thy spiritual filthiness; even base drunkards from the most despised
corners of the wilderness ; which set out themselves with those
ornaments which their savage condition would afford.

43 . " Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will
they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them?"] —
Then said I, This people of Judah is now grown old in her spi
ritual adulteries : it is more than time for her to leave off these
sinful courses ; and will she yet continue her whorish idolatries
with other nations, and they with her ?

44. " Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman
that playeth the harlot : so went they in unto Aholah arid unto
Aholibah, the lewd women.1"] — Yet I saw no end of those her
odious fornications ; but she persisteth in her abominable un-
cleannesses : the nations round about her consort with her in her
idolatries : thus they do with Israel and Judah without fear or
shame.

45. " Because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their
hands."] — Because they are guilty both of idolatries and murders
in a very shameful measure ; in that they have shed the blood of
their children in sacrifices to their false gods.

49. "And ye shall bear the sins of your idols."] — And ye
shall bear the punishment of your odious idolatry.

XXIV. 3. " Thus saith the Lord GOD ; Set on a pot, set it on,
and also pour water into it."] — Thus saith the Lord God ; I have
appointed thy very actions to be significant and prophetical ; set
on a pot therefore, &c.

6. Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the bloody
city, to the pot whose scum is therein, and whose scum is not
gone out of it ! bring it out piece by piece ; let no lot fall upon
it."] — Wherefore thus saith the Lord ; Jerusalem, that bloody
city, is that boiling pot whose scum is in it, for that it is not
purged from those foul sins wherewith it aboundeth : the fire
under it is the extreme calamity which it shall suffer : the flesh
and bones which are in it are those Jews which have fled thither
for safety and defence ; they shall be boiled therein through the
great misery they shall endure : put thou in thine hook, and

550 PARAPHRASE UPON

bring out the flesh and bone piecemeal, wheresoever it lights,
without any choice or deliberation, to show that every one of them
shall be fetched out thence without difference.

7. " For her blood is in the midst of her ; she set it upon the
top of a rock ; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with
dust."] — For the blood which she hath shed is conspicuous, even
in the very midst of her ; as if it had been spilt upon some high
eminent rock, where it could not be hid nor soaked in : she did
not pour it upon the ground, that it should be covered with the
dust, and so unseen.

So verse 8.

9. "I will even make the pile for fire great."] — I will greatly
aggravate her judgments.

10. " Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and
spice it well, and let the bones be burned."] — See that full and
exquisite vengeance be executed upon all the inhabitants of that
wicked city.

So verse u.

1 2. " She hath wearied herself with lies, and her great scum
went not forth out of her : her scum shall be in the fire."] — She
hath wearied herself with her false worship, and with flatteries of
her safe condition ; and all her wickedness is still within her, un-
repented of, unamended; and shall be, together with her, fit
matter for my wrath to work upon.

13. " In thy filthiness is lewdness."] — That rust and scum which
is in thee is thine abominable lewdness, &c.

1 6. " Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of
thine eyes with a stroke : yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep,
neither shall thy tears run down."] — Son of man, behold, I take
away from thee that dear wife of thine, in whom thou tookest
true contentment : I will inflict the stroke of death upon her ; and
yet I forbid thee to mourn and weep: shed no tears for this
great loss of thine, for a sign to this people.

17. "Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind
the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy
feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men."] —
Make no show at all of mourning for that thy dear consort ;
but demean thyself so as if thou hadst no loss or sorrow;
neither make thou any funeral banquet, as the manner of the
people is.

21. "Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of

EZEKIEL XXIV. 7.— XXV. 10. 551

your strength, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul
pitieth ; and your sons and your daughters whom yo have left
shall fall by the sword."] — Behold, I will cause my temple to be
exposed to the profanation of the heathen ; and I will give into
their hands your young men, your wives, your daughters, and
whatsoever is dear and precious unto you, and they shall fall by
the sword of the Babylonians.

22. " And ye shall do as I have done : ye shall not cover your
lips."] — And ye shall do as I have done : ye shall make no sign
of any mourning or lamentation for them, &c.
So verse 23.

24. " Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign : according to all that he
hath done."] — Thus do I figure out, and act upon Ezekiel that
which I will do unto you, &c.

XXV. 2. " Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites,
and prophesy against them."] — Look thou towards the coast of
the Ammonites, and, in this posture, do thou prophesy against
them.

3. " Because thou saidst, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it
was profaned ; and against the land of Israel."] — Because thou
didst insult and rejoice in the profanation of my sanctuary, and in
the destruction of Israel, &c.

4. " Behold, therefore I will deliver thce to the men of the east
for a possession."] — Behold, therefore I will deliver thee and thy
country to the hands of the Babylonians, for their possession and
inheritance, &c.

5. " And I will make Kabbah a stable for camels, and the
Ammonites a couchingplacc for flocks : and yo shall know that I
am the LORD."] — And I will make thy chief city Kabbah, where
in are the palaces of thy great princes, to become a stable for
camels ; and the land of the Ammonites will I make a desert, for
the pasturing of sheep.

8, 9, 10. " Thus saith the Lord GOD ; Because that Moab and
Seir do say, Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the hea
then ; therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the
cities, from his cities which are on his frontiers, the glory of the
country, Bcth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim, unto the
men of the east with the Ammonites, and will give them in pos
session, that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the
nations."] — Thus saith the Lord ; Because the Moabites and
Edomites have triumphed in the desolation of my people, and

552 PARAPHRASE UPON

have scornfully said, We see no difference betwixt Judah and other
nations; their God hath had no more power to preserve them
than the gods of their neighbours ; therefore will I cast open the
frontiers of Moab, how strongly soever defenced, with their wasted
cities; and will give up all the richest and pleasantest part of
their country unto the spoil of the Babylonians ; and, together
therewith, will 1 deliver up the land of the Ammonites, to be so
utterly wasted, that the memory of it may not remain among the
nations.

13. " And I will make it desolate from Teman ; and they of
Dedan shall fall by the sword."] — I will make Edom desolate in all
the coasts thereof : no part of the country shall be free from de
struction.

14. " And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of
my people Israel : and they shall do in Edom according to mine
anger and according to my fury."] — And I will execute my ven
geance upon Edom, by the same hand that hath plagued my
people Israel, even the Babylonians ; who shall also employ those
captive Israelites, which live under them, in this service, &c.

1 6. " And I will cut off the Cherethims, and destroy the rem
nant of the seacoast."] — I will cut off both those Philistines that
dwell in the inland, and those that inhabit along by the seacoast.

XXVI. 2. " Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against
Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people :
she is turned unto me : I shall be replenished, now she is laid
waste.""] — Because Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, in rejoicing
at her ruin, Aha, she that was the most populous and best traded
city of the east is now laid waste : all her traffick and wealth shall
now be turned unto me ; I shall be enriched in her spoil and
decay.

4. " I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the
top of a rock."] — I will cause not only her rich treasures to be
carried away, but her very soil and earth shall be taken off and
removed, that she may be left as barren as the rock.

5. "It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst
of the sea.'1] — It shall no more be a frequented city, but a waste
place for fishermen to lay abroad their nets in, &c.

15. " Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when
the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of
thee?"] — Shall not all the seacoasts round about be afraid and
amazed at the fame of thy destruction ? &c.

EZEKIEL XXV. 13.— XXVII. 8. 553

1 6. " Then all the princes of the sea shall come clown from
their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their broidered
garments : they shall clothe themselves with trembling."] — Then
all the princes of those maritime regions on all sides shall be dis
heartened with the news of thy ruin ; and shall lay aside their
pomp and jollity, and shall be wholly possessed with fear and
trembling, &c.

1 9. " When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities
that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep upon
thee."] — When I shall bring the Babylonians upon thee, who,
like a deluge of waters, shall violently break in upon thee and
swallow thee up.

20. " With the people of old time, &c., and I shall set glory in
the land of the living."] — With those people which are long since
dead and gone ; then I shall at the last restore the former glory,
with an increase thereof, unto the remainders of my Church here
upon earth.

21. " I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more"} —
I will make thee a terrible example to all cities and countries, in
my utter destroying thee, &c.

XXVII. 3. "And say unto Tyrus, 0 thou that art situate at
the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many
isles," &c.] — And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate upon
the seacoast, as a fit and famous port ; which art renowned for
the traffick of merchandise all the world over.

5, 6. " They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir.
Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars ; the company
of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory."] — They
have prepared all things that belong to thy shipping in a degree
above necessity and convenience, even to wantonness, and ex-
cessful curiosity : the timber thereof is not of any ordinary and
base wood, but rare and precious ; and thy benches, instead of
wood, which others use, are of the costliest ivory, brought from far.

7. "Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt."] — And,
where others' sails are of plain canvass, thine are of fine linen,
curiously embroidered with Egyptian work, &c.

8. "The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners:
thy wise men, 0 Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots."] —
Thy mariners were the slaves of Zidon and Damascus, both strong
and skilful ; and thy pilots were the cunning seamen of thine own
breeding.

354 PARAPHRASE UPON

9. " The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in
thee thy calkers."] — The ancient and experienced men of Gebal,
who were noted for most expert shipwrights, were employed in the
building and calking of thy vessels, &c.

10. "They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were in thine
army, thy men of war : they hanged the shield and helmet in
thee."] — The Persians and Lydians and Moors, famous for their
prowess and skill in military affairs, both by sea and land, though
far distant from thee, yet arc glad to be entertained for thy
warriors : they have devoted their shields and helmets to thy
service, £c.

IT." The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls
round about, and the Gammandims were in thy towers: they
hanged their shields upon thy walls."] — Thy valiant neighbours
were, with thine own forces, upon thy walls round about, and upon
thy towers of defence ; and have both guarded and beautified thee
with their shields.

1 2. " Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of
all kind of riches ; with silver, iron, tin."] — All cities and countries
round about strove to furnish thee with those commodities which
they yield, and the traffick whereof might be gainful to them
selves : the famous port of Tarshish traded with thee in all variety
of riches ; in silver, iron, tin, &c.

13. " Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants:
they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy
market."] — The Grecians and Iberians and Cappadocians traded
in the persons of men, which they sold to thee, and in vessels
of brass.

So also ver. 14—24.

26. " Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters : the
east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas."] — Those
that have the government of thee have brought thee into a sea
of misery : Nebuchadnezzar, like a boisterous east wind, hath
broken thee in pieces.

27. " Shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy
ruin."] — Shall fall into the hands of the Babylonians, and by them
be destroyed.

28. " The suburbs shall shake at the sound of the cry of thy
pilots."] — The noise of thy victors shouting, and of thy citizens
crying and shrieking, shall be such as shall make thy suburbs to
shake therewith.

EZEKIEL XXVII. 9.— XXVIII. 13. 555

31. "And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee,
and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with
bitterness of heart."] — They shall, by tearing their hair and gird
ing themselves with sackcloth, testify their vehement mourning
for thee, &c.

34. " In the time luhen thou shalt be broken by the seas in the
depths of the waters, thy merchandise and all thy company in the
midst of theo shall fall."] — In the time when thou shalt be destroyed
by the Babylonian forces, which, like a raging sea, shall come in
upon thee, thy trade, and all the commerce that thou hadst with
other nations, shall utterly fail.

XXVIII. 2. "And thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the
seat of God, &c. ; though thou set thine heart as the heart of
God."] — Thou hast said, I am out of the reach of man's power ;
my seat is higher than that it can be infested by the force or
malice of men, &c. ; though thou hast in thy proud thoughts
equalled thyself with God.

3. "Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret
that they can hide from thee."] — And as thou art greater than
all others, so in thine own conceit thou art wiser than even Daniel
himself : thou knowest secret things as well as he, in whom is the
Spirit of the Most High God.

8. "And thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the
midst of the seas."] — And thou, that hast fondly imagined thyself
a God, shalt die the death of thine ordinary vassals, notwithstand
ing thy strong forts and bulwarks of the sea.

10. "Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the
hand of strangers."] — Thou shalt die such a death as an insolent
and godless pagan is worthy of, by the hand of the Babylonians.

12. " Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in
beauty."] — Thou givcst out thyself as absolutely perfect, both in
wisdom and beauty ; so as no addition can be made to thee in
either of these.

13. "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every pre
cious stone ivas thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond,
the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald,
and the carbuncle, and gold : the workmanship of thy tabrets and
of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast
created."] — Thou hast abounded with all delicacies, as if thou
hadst lived in Eden, the garden of God ; and where others make
them coverings of homely and ordinary matter, thy canopies are

556 PARAPHRASE UPON

beset with all the precious stones that can be reckoned, and with
the best of metals ; neither hast thou needed to take any care for
thy varieties of pleasures, for thy curious music was prepared for
thee even from thy very birth.

14. " Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth ; and I have
set thee so : thou wast upon the holy mountain of God ; thou hast
walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire."] — Thou
advancest thyself to be as that glorious cherub which covereth
the ark of God : so dost thou spread thy protection over thy land,
and so have I appointed thee to do ; yea, thou tookest upon thee,
as if thou wert that God which is worshipped in his holy temple,
and as that Almighty one who walketh above in the clouds, among
the lightnings and thunderstones.

15. " Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou
wast created, till iniquity was found in thee."] — Thou didst arro
gate a kind of perfection to thyself in all thy ways, even from thy
very nativity, till thy wickedness brake forth notoriously, to thy
just conviction.

1 6. " By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the
midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I
will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God : and I will
destroy thee, 0 covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of
fire."] — By the confluence of much people upon the occasions of
thy merchandise, and the oppressive bargains that are used there
in, thou art full of fraud and violence, and art thereupon grown
exceedingly sinful ; therefore will I cast thee out from those vainly
pretended rights which thou claimest in the temple of God : I will
destroy thee, 0 thou false cherub, from the ark, whose covering
thou wouldest resemble ; and strike thee down from* those clouds
where thou affectest to walk among the fiery meteors.

1 8. "Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of
thine iniquities."] — By the multitude of thine iniquities thou hast
defiled those places of majesty and devotion which thou wouldst
have to be thought sacred, &c.

23. " And the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by
the sword upon her on every side ; and they shall know that I
am the LORD."] — The wounded and distressed inhabitants shall
be called to reckoning in the midst of her streets, for their many
and grievous sins, by the sword of her enemy, the Babylonian.

24. " And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the
house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about

EZEKIEL XXVIII. 14.— XXIX. 6. 557

them, that despised them."] — I will put an end to the sorrows of
my Church : these heathens shall no more gall and grieve them ;
neither shall the nations round about insult upon their miseries,
and trample upon them, &c.

25. " When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the
people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in
them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their
land that I have given to my servant Jacob."] — When I shall have
gathered my chosen people out of all the nations of the earth
amongst whom they are dispersed, and shall be sanctified in them
before the rest of the world, then shall they enjoy a quiet rest in
my Church, which I have appropriated to them.

So verse 26.

XXIX. 3. " Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt,
the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath
said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself."] —
Behold, I am thy professed enemy, 0 Pharaoh, the proud king of
Egypt ; who like a great dragon or whale, liest securely in those
watery regions of thine, and hast said, Nilus is my own ; no enemy
can take it from me.

4. " But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish
of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thec up out
of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick
unto thy scales."] — But I will put the hooks of the king of Baby
lon into thy jaws, and will draw thee out of those watery forts of
thine, and drag thee up to the dry land ; and for thy princes and
people, which are as the lesser sort of fishes, they also, as sticking
to thy scales, shall be plucked out with thee, &c.

5. " And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and
all the fish of thy rivers : thou shalt fall upon the open fields ;
thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered : I have given
thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the
heaven."] — And I will leave thee upon the Libyan sands, exposed
as a prey to the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field, both
thec and thy princes and people : thou shalt be slain and thine
army in the open fields, and there shall ye lie scattered, and shall
not be brought together for sepulture.

6. " Because they have been a staff of reed to the house of
Israel."] — They have been a deceitful and untrusty stay to the
house of Israel ; like a crazy reed which breaks under the hand of
him that leans upon it.

558 PARAPHRASE UPON

10. " From the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethio
pia/1] — From the south borders of Egypt unto the north shall the
land be utterly desolate.

11. "No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast
shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years."] —
It shall lie waste and uninhabited, without traffick, without culture,
for the space of forty years.

14. " And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt."] — They
shall return again to reinhabit, as well the midland country as the
skirts and borders of Egypt their native land ; and they shall be
there restored to a tributary state under the Persians.

1 8. "Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was
peeled : yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the
service that he had served against it."] — Every man had worn
his hair from off his head, and his skin from his shoulders in car
rying burdens for raising up mounts against Tyrus ; yet did he
not find that booty for his army therein which he expected.

21. "In that day will I cause the horn of the house of Israel
to bud forth, and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the
midst of them ; and they shall know that I am the LORD."] — In
that day will I raise up Israel again to a recovery of strength and
comfort ; and will cause the mouths of my people to be opened in
the confession and praise of my name amongst the Babylonians ;
and they shall know and acknowledge me to be the Lord.

XXX. 3. "For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is
near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen."] — The
day is near at hand, wherein the Lord will take vengeance on the
heathen which have oppressed his people.

So verses 4, 5.

6. " From the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the
sword, saith the Lord GOD."] — From the southern coast of Egypt
along unto the north parts thereof shall they be slain with the
sword.

9. " In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships to
make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great pain shall come
upon them, as in the day of Egypt : for, lo, it cometh."] — In that
day will I cause messengers to go forth by sea in ships of speed,
to carry the sad news of Egypt's destruction to the Ethiopians,
who shall be exceedingly affrighted therewith ; and shall be no
less pained with the fear of the same evil, than Egypt is with the
sense and smart of it.

EZEKIEL XXIX. 10.— XXXI. 8. 559

12. "And sell the land into the hand of the wicked."] — I will
deliver up the land into the hand of the Babylonians, as if it were
conveyed to them by bargain and sale.

14. "And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set fire in
Zoan, and will execute judgments in No."] — And I will execute
my utmost judgments upon the several provinces and chief cities
of Egypt, upon Pathros, Zoan, and Alexandria.

So also verses 15-17.

1 8. " At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I
shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her
strength shall cease in her : as for her, a cloud shall cover her,
and her daughters shall go into captivity."] — At Daphnis there
shall be a dark and gloomy day of slaughter and death, when I
shall there make an end of the tyrannical government of Egypt ;
and all her pomp and glory of her strength shall utterly cease ;
and she shall be under a cloud of sorrow and obscurity, and her
people shall be carried away into captivity.

21. " Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of
Egypt ; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a
roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword."] — Son of
man, I have already discomfited a great part of the forces of Pha
raoh king of Egypt : the loss that he hath already sustained shall
not be repaired again by any means for the preventing of his utter
subversion.

XXXI. 2. "Whom art thou like in thy greatness?"]— Think
not that no king is comparable to thce in power and greatness.

3. "Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair
branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature ;
and his top was among the thick boughs."] — Behold, the king of
Assyria Avas a greater monarch than thyself : he was, in compa
rison of thee, as a tall cedar in Lebanon, largely spread.

4. " The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high
with her rivers."] — Whose roots were thoroughly watered with
constant streams, &c.

So verses 5, 6, 7.

8. " The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him : the
fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not
like his branches ; nor any tree in the garden of God was like
unto him in his beauty."] — The greatest princes, in the most
flourishing kingdoms of the world, could not stand in comparison

560 PARAPHRASE UPON

with him ; but all of them were forced to vail to him, as more
powerful and glorious than themselves.

So verse 9.

ii. "I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the
mighty one of the heathen ; he shall surely deal with him : I
have driven him out for his wickedness."] — I have therefore deli
vered him and his proud Nineveh into the hand of Nebuchadnez
zar and his Babylonians : he shall deal with him as he deserves :
I have rooted him out for his wickedness.

So verse 12.

j 4. " To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt
themselves for their height, neither shoot."] — To the end that
none of the proud princes of the earth should hereafter dare to
exalt themselves in the overweening and confidence of their own
strength and glory, &c.

15. " I covered the deep for him."] — I caused those waters
wherewith he was nourished to take up a mourning and lamenta
tion for him.

1 8. "To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness
among the trees of Eden ? yet shalt thou be brought down with
the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth :"] — 0 Pha
raoh, thou that art thus like to the Assyrian amongst all the
kings of the earth in glory and magnificence, thou shalt also be
like him in thy ruin : thou, with the other princes of the world,
shalt be brought down into the grave, and shalt be destroyed in
the midst of thy fellow-heathens, &c.

XXXII. 2. "Thou art like a young lion of the nations.'1] —
Thou art a cruel tyrant among thy neighbour nations, as a young
lion is among the beasts.

4. " Then will I leave thee upon the land," &c.] — See chap,
xxix. verse 5.

6. " I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou
swimmest, even to the mountains."] — And whereas thou now, like
a whale, swimmest in the great waters of thy land, instead of
those waters shall be the blood of thy people, wherein thou
mayest swim ; which shall cover the earth up to the very moun
tains.

7. "And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven,
and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a
cloud, and the moon shall not give her light."]— And when thou,

EZEKIEL XXXI. 1 1.— XXXIJ. 23. 561

which art reputed the great light of the world, shalt he extin
guished, the very face of the heavens shall seem to be covered
with darkness ; the sun shall seem clouded, and the moon without
light : so great a change shall thy subversion seem to make in
the world.

So also verse 8.

9. "I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall
bring thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which
thou hast not known."] — I will also aifright and amaze the hearts
of many nations round about thee, when I shall bring unto them
both the rumour and the expectation of thy destruction : even
those countries shall be terrified which are not so much as known
unto thee.

So also verse 10.

14. "Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their
rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord GOD."] — Then will I give
those troubled nations rest and tranquillity : they shall be as
calm as deep waters ; and their rivers shall flow as smoothly as
oil, without any vehement and unquiet agitation.

1 8. "And cast them down, even her, and the daughters of
the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them
that go down into the pit.'1] — Make thou some resemblance of
the casting down of Egypt, and the adjoining nations, her part
ners, into the grave, as dead corpses.

19. " Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou
laid with the uncircumcised."] — What nation is there whom thou
thinkest able to compare with thee in strength and glory ? But
now, how strong and goodly soever thou art, go down into the
dust ; and be laid together with thy godless and lewd compa
nions of the profane heathen.

2 1 . The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of
the midst of hell with them that help him : they are gone down,
they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword."] — The valiant and
mighty warrior, before deceased, shall as it were out of his grave
speak to Egypt and his associates ; and shall say, that they are
brought down as well as he : they lie slain by the sword, and are
taken away in their uncircumcision and sinfulness.

22. " Asshur is there and all her company : his graves are
about him."] — The great king of Assyria and all his company is
come down to the grave, &c.

23. " Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her

BP. HALL, VOL. III. O ()

562 PARAPHRASE UPON

company is round about her grave : all of them slain."] — The
graves of his companies and complices are set in the sides of the
burial-place round about the grave of Asshur, which lies in the
midst of his attendants : all of them slain, &c.

24. " There is Elam and all her multitude round about her
grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword."] — There is the
prince of the Elamites, neighbours and assistants to the Assy
rians ; and all their troops, whose graves are round about the
grave of their commander, all of them slain by the sword, &c.

26. " There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude : her
graves are round about him."] — There are the princes of the
Cappadocians and Iberians, and all their multitude round about
their graves, &c.

27. " And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of
the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their wea
pons of war : and they have laid their swords under their heads,
but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were
the terror of the mighty in the land of the living."] — They shall
not lie with those mighty ones of the heathen, who die naturally ;
being not stripped of their weapons of war, having their swords
laid peaceably under their heads in their graves ; but they shall
lie amongst the mangled and slain, and shall carry the marks
of their sins in their carcasses, though for the time they were ter
rible to the world.

Verse 29, 30, as verse 24.

31. " Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all
his multitude."] — Pharaoh shall, as it were, see this world of
people coming down to the grave with him ; and shall comfort
himself with such store of company in death, &c.

XXXIII. 5. " But he that taketh warning shall deliver his
soul."] — But he that taketh warning stands upon his own defence,
and preserveth his life.

10. " If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we
pine away in them, how should we then live ?"] — If, according to
thy prophecies, God have determined to reckon with us for our
sins, and to bring judgment upon us, to what purpose shall our
conversion be ? and how shall we live though we do amend ?

1 2. " The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him
in the day of his transgression."

So also verse 13. See Ezek. xviii. 24.

22. " Now the hand of the LORD was upon me in the evening,
afore he that was escaped came ; and had opened my mouth, until

EZEKIEL XXXII. 24.— XXXIV. 2. 563

he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened."] — The
powerful motion of God's Spirit was upon me, &c. in the evening,
before the coming of that escaped messenger from Jerusalem ;
and put words into my mouth, not suffering me to keep silence
any longer.

24. " Abraham was one, and he inherited the land : but we are
many; the land is given us for inheritance."] — If Abraham, being
but one, had this land given to him for his inheritance: how much
more may we his seed, to whom it is deduced, being many, chal
lenge a due interest in it !

25. " Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD ; Ye
eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and
shed blood: and shall ye possess the land?"] — No; deceive not
yourselves ; ye are not the sons of faithful Abraham : your works
are contrary to his : ye do wilfully transgress my commands : ye
eat the blood together with the flesh, which I have forbidden : ye
are guilty both of idolatry and murder, and can ye challenge to
possess the land in the right of Abraham ?

26. " Ye stand upon your sword."] — Ye rely upon the confi
dence of your own sword, &c.

3 1 . " And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they
sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they
will not do them."] — They come to thee with reverence and re
spect, as the manner of my people is ; and they sit before thee to
hear thy words, in an awful and attentive fashion, but they will
perform nothing of that which is commanded them, &c.

32. " And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one
that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument."] —
They seem to take much pleasure and contentment in thy ser
mons ; even no less than a man would do in the hearing of an ex
cellent song, of one that hath a pleasant voice, and plays sweetly
on an instrument, &c.

33. " And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then
shall they know that a prophet hath been among them."] — And
when these judgments shall come to pass, which I have premo-
nished, then they shall know and find, too late, that they have
had a true prophet of God among them, whom they unworthily
disrespected.

XXXIV. 2. " Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed
themselves ! should not the shepherds feed the flocks ?"] — Woe to
those rulers, and to those teachers and spiritual guides of Israel,

002

564 PARAPHRASE UPON

that feed and pamper themselves ; whereas their duty and office is,
and should be, to feed the souls of my people, and to govern and
rule them aright.

3. " Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill
them that are fed : but ye feed not the flock."] — Ye take of the
best commodities of the people under your charge, neither is that
grudged unto you ; and make use of their personal employments,
as occasion is offered : but ye do not perform your duty to them
again : ye do not teach and govern them as ye ought.

4. " The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye
healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which
was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven
away, neither have ye sought that which was lost."] — Those par
ticular offices, which pertain to your charge, as comforting the
weak, healing the sick, binding up the brokenhearted, reclaiming
and reducing those that have erred, ye have not accordingly done ;
but rather have tyrannously and cruelly exercised an imperious
authority over them.

The same allegory holds verse 5 — 10.

11." For thus saith the Lord GOD ; Behold, 1, even I, will both
search my sheep, and seek them out."] — Behold, since my shep
herds are careless, I myself will make diligent search for my sheep,
that are scattered and lost ; and I will find them wheresoever they
are strayed.

So verse 12.

13. "And I will bring them out from the people, and gather
them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land,
and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers,"] —
And I will fetch them from those several lands whereinto they
were driven by their miserable captivity, and will bring them
back into their own country, and will feed them carefully and
plentifully in my church.

So verse 14, 15, 16.

17. "Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the
rams and the he goats."]— Behold, I judge between one man and
another, between the lambs and kids, between the rams and goats:
as I do now put a difference between those of my own flock and
the world, so, hereafter I will exquisitely sever them, the one to
my right hand, the other to my left.

1 8. " Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the
good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue

EZEKIEL XXXIV. 3-29. 565

of your pastures?"] — Seeraeth it a small thing unto you, to have
taken away from my people that wholesome doctrine which I pre
pared for their spiritual nourishment; but ye must also foully cor
rupt that which yet remaineth of my law, &c.

19. And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden
with your feet;"] — As for my people, they are fain to take up
with that doctrine which ye have depraved by your unjust and
sinful glosses and traditions, &c.

20. " Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and
between the lean cattle."] — Behold, I will judge between the
proud justiciaries who are puffed up with a conceit of their own
worthiness, and the poor dejected souls that are mean in their
own eyes.

21." Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and
pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered
them abroad."] — Because ye have insolently despised and scorn
fully entreated the weak-hearted ; and, instead of easing their
afflicted consciences, have been ready to gall and burden them
more, till ye have made them utterly weary of their stations in
my Church.

23. " And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall
feed them, even my^ servant David ; he shall feed them, and he
shall be their shepherd."] — And I will bring my Church, both
Jews and Gentiles, under the government of that one King and
Prophet of my chosen ; even the Messiah, the true Heir and Suc
cessor of David ; and he shall both teach and rule them.

So also verse 24.

25. " And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and
will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land : and they shall
dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods."] — And I
will make with them a covenant of everlasting peace, betwixt me
and them ; and will keep from them those spiritual dangers and
annoyances that may be hurtful unto them ; and they shall be
safe and secure, even in the places that would seem to threaten the
greatest peril.

26. "And I will make them and the places round about my hill
a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his
season."] — And I will exceedingly bless and prosper them, and
all that sincerely profess an holy relation to my Church ; and will
water them plentifully with heavenly doctrine, &c.

29. " And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they

566 PARAPHRASE UPON

shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear
the shame of the heathen any more."] —And I will make them a
glorious plant, being fast rooted in that promised Messiah, and
being incorporated in him ; and they shall no more be consumed
with a spiritual famine, nor be trampled upon by the enemies of
my Church.

XXXV. 3. " Behold, 0 mount Seir, I am against thee."] —
Behold, I am against you, 0 ye children of Esau, that inhabit
mount Seir.

5. " In the time of their calamity, in the time that their ini
quity had an end."] — In time of their calamity, which fell upon
them when the measure of their iniquity was full.

10. "Because thou hast said, These two nations and these
two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas
the LORD was there."] — Because thou hast said, These two
nations of Israel and Judah and their countries, wasted by the
Assyrian and Babylonian, shall be mine, and we will possess it ;
whereas, however this land is abused, yet it is the Lord's pecu
liar ; and therefore out of thy reach, and free from any challenge
of thine.

XXXVI. 3 . " And ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and
are an infamy of the people."] — And your name is scornfully
taken up in the lips of your busy and insulting enemies, and ye
are made a byword and reproach of the people.

7. "I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen that are
about you, they shall bear their shame."] — I have sworn by my
self, Surely the heathen that are round about you shall be put to
that shame and confusion wherein they have rejoiced to see you
and to insult over you.

13. " Because they say unto you, Thou land devourest up men,
and hast bereaved thy nations."] — Because they say unto you,
Thou, 0 land, art fatal to thine inhabitants, and hast consumed
them in divers successions, and hast made away with the nations
that dwell in thee.

17. " Their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed
woman. "] — Their continual practice was as foul and odious to me
as can be expressed by any legal uncleanness.

20. " They profaned my holy name, when they said to them,
These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his
land."] — They caused my holy name to be scorned and evil
spoken of, in that it was said of these so wicked and lewd persons,

EZEKIEL XXXV. 3.— XXXVII. 8. 567

Lo, these are the select people of the Lord, and those that were
inhabitants of his holy land.

23. " When I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes."] —
When I shall glorify myself by working your deliverance, and
your apparent reformation before their eyes.

26. " And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,
and I will give you an heart of flesh.'1] — I will take away your
perverse and rebellious disposition, and I will give you a tender
ness of heart and an aptness to be wrought upon by the motions
of my Spirit.

37. " I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel,
to do it for them ; I will increase them with men like a flock."]
—I will so do this, that yet I will be sought and sued to by the
house of Israel for this blessing upon them ; and then I will give
such an increase to the men, as I arn wont to give to their fruitful
flocks.

38. "As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her so
lemn feasts ; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of
men," &c.] — As Jerusalem in her holy feasts is filled with whole
flocks and herds of those cattle that are brought up thither for
sacrifice, so shall all the waste cities of Israel be filled with flocks
of men.

XXXVII. i. " The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried
me out in thp spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of
the valley which ivas full of bones."] — The powerful motion of
God's Spirit was with and upon me ; and carried me in vision into
the midst of a valley full of the bones of the slain.

3. "And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?
And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest."] — Son of man,
thinkest thou it possible that these bones should live, and be re
stored to that estate of this present life which they were lately in ?
And I answered, O Lord God, this is more than flesh and blood
can conceive ; human reason cannot think so ; but thou knowest
what thou hast to do, and to thee nothing is impossible.

7. " So I prophesied as I was commanded : and as I prophesied,
there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came to
gether, bone to his bone."]— So I spake to those bones as I was
commanded ; and while I was in speaking, the vision represented
to me a noise that filled the valley, and a motion of those bones,
and a meeting together of them, bone to bone.

8. " And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up

568 PARAPHRASE UPON

upon them, and the skin covered them above : but there was no
breath in them."] — And the vision showed me the sinews and flesh
coming upon them, and the skin covering them ; but as yet no life
was inspired into them.

9. " Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy,
son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD ; Come
from the four winds, 0 breath, and breathe upon these slain, that
they may live."] — In a representation of that powerful Spirit of
God which gives life unto man. I was bidden in vision to call to

c5 *

the winds from all the coasts of heaven, to breathe upon these
new reformed bodies, that they might live.

So verse 10.

j i . " Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel :
behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost : we
are cut off for our parts."] — Son of man, these bones are a per
fect resemblance of the whole house of Israel : Behold, they say,
We are not only dead, but our carcasses are dissolved, our bones
dried, all our hopes and possibilities of life and recovery utterly
cut off.

12. " Behold, 0 my people, I will open your graves, and cause
you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land
of Israel."] — Behold, 0 my people, I will so restore you, as if I
opened the very graves and infused a new life into you ; even so
will I recover you to your former state in the land of Israel.

16, 17. "Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and
write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his com
panions : then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph,
the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his com
panions : and join them one to another into one stick ; and they
shall become one in thine hand."] — Yea, there shall not only be
a life but a conjunction of Israel and Judah ; for the signification
whereof take thee two sticks ; and in the one of them write, For
Judah, and the Benjamites his companions : in the other write,
For Joseph, and his son Ephraim, and the rest of the ten tribes
of Israel their companions : and when thou hast so done, join one
of the sticks to another ; and they shall be so pieced together in
thy hand, as if they were but one stick.

19. " Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the
hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put
them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one
stick, and they shall be one in mine hand."] — Behold, I will take

EZEKIEL XXXVII. 9.— XXXVIII. 5, 6. 569

the Ten Tribes of Israel, which are comprised under the name of
Joseph and Ephraim and their fellows, and will put them together
with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and will make them one
nation, and they shall be one in my hand.

22. "And I will make them one nation in the land upon the
mountains of Israel ; and one king shall be king to them all : and
they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided,"
&c.] — And I will unite my Church all the world over in one ; and
one King, even the Messiah whom I shall send, shall be King to
them all ; and they shall no more be so divided in profession, as
if they were several kingdoms, ruled by divers sovereigns, but in
the main substance of religion shall be one.

24. " And David my servant shall be king over them/' &c.] —
See chap, xxxiv. 23.

26. " I will make a covenant of peace with them."] — See chap,
xxxiv. 25.

Ibid. " And will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for ever
more."] — I will set my Church in the midst of them, which shall
continue to the end of the world ; and I will dwell in their hearts
as in my temple for ever.

So verse 27.

XXXVIII. 2. " Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land
of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy
against him.1'1] — Son of man, denounce thou judgments against
those princes and countries of the Gentiles, which shall, before the
restoration of the Church by the coming of the Messiah, infest and
oppress my people.

3. " Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of
Meshech and Tubal :"] — Behold, I am against thee, thou king of
Syria; and against all those assistant princes which aid thee in
thy cruel dealings with my people :

4. "And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,
and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses," &c.] —
And I will bring thee back again from thine own land by my
overruling power ; and will set thee on, and all thy forces, against
Judah ; and thou shalt come up against it with a mighty army.

5. 6. " Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them ; all of them with
shield and helmet."] — The rest of the nations also, even Persians
from the east, Ethiopians from the south, the Moors from the
west, the Phrygians from the north, shall join with them in this
onset.

570 PARAPHRASE UPON

7. " And be thou a guard unto them."] — And do thou encom
pass them round about with thy forces on every side, so as they
shall not be able to stir forth.

8. " After many days thou shalt be visited : hi the latter years
thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the
sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the moun
tains of Israel, which have been always waste."] — After many
years I will visit thee with my judgments ; for some two hundred
years hence thou shalt invade the land of my people, whom I shall
have brought back from their captivity, and shall have gathered
home out of many nations ; even the mountains of Israel which
have been long wasted, &c.

9. " Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be
like a cloud to cover the land."] — Thou shalt, for suddenness and
fury, come like a storm ; and for a multitude and frequence, like a
dark cloud, shalt cover the land.

10. "And thou shalt think an evil thought."] — Thou shalt con
ceive and harbour many subtle and cruel thoughts and projects,
against my people.

n." And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled
villages ; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all
of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor
gates."] — I will go up to a land that is easily invaded and over
run ; as that which consists of unwalled villages, not able to bear
out an assault : I will go to a secure people, that dwell, as they
think, safely, in the confidence of the strength and number of the
inhabitants.

13. " Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with
all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to
take a spoil ? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey ? to
carry away silver and gold?"] — Those nations that have hereto
fore wont to live by sharking and spoil, and those seafaring men
who upon the seacoasts have exercised piracy, shall say unto
thee, Art thou come to rob and waste? hast thou gathered thy
company to take booties ? to carry away silver and gold ? Why
didst thou not take us along with thee ? &c.

14. " Thus saith the Lord GOD ; In that day when my people
of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?"} — Thus saith
the Lord, In that day, when my people of Israel give themselves
over to security and false confidence in their own strength, shall

EZEKIEL XXXVII. 7.— XXXIX. 12. 571

it not be made known to thee, that thou maycst be the execu
tioner of my anger against them ?

1 6. "When I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their
eyes."] — When I shall be acknowledged just and righteous in
executing those judgments which thy hand, 0 multitude of ad
verse nations, shall inflict upon Israel before their eyes.

XXXIX. i. " 0 Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal."]
— See chap, xxxviii. ver. i .

2. "And leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee
to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the
mountains of Israel."] — I will so consume thee, that only the
sixth part of thy forces shall be left alive; and I will, in my just
judgment, fetch thee from the borders of the north, to fall upon
my Church in great fury and malice.

3. "And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will
cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand."] — I will make
void and frustrate all the attempts and endeavours which thou
shalt use against my people, and disappoint all thy warlike pre
parations.

6. " And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that
dwell carelessly in the isles."] — I will send my fierce judgments
upon the enemy of my Church, and upon those that, being sepa
rated and guarded by the sea, live securely confident of their own
safety, &c.

9. "The bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the
spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years."] — Such
store of these military weapons shall be taken from their enemies,
as that those bows and arrows and staves and spears shall yield
them firewood for many years.

ii." And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give
unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the pas
sengers on the east of the sea : and it shall stop the noses of the
passengers : and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude :
and they shall call it The valley of Hamon-Gog."] — I will cause
these cruel and hostile nations to leave their carcasses in great
abundance behind them in the land of Israel ; and there they
shall be cast into pits and valleys, near to the common road ; so
as all passengers shall stop their noses, by reason of the noisome
scent of the dead bodies ; and the valley shall bear the name for
ever after of this frequent sepulture of the nations.

1 2. " And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of

572 PARAPHRASE

them, that they may cleanse the land."] — And so great shall be
the multitude of the slain, as that my people of Israel, by whose
hand this slaughter shall be done, shall bestow many months in
burying them ; not so much out of respect to their dead enemies,
as for their own sakes, that their land may be cleansed from the
impurity and annoyance of those carcasses.
So verses 13 and 14.

15. "And the passengers that pass through the land, when any
seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the
buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog."] — And the
passengers that pass through the land, when any of them seeth a
man's bone, then shall they lay an heap of stones upon it, to give
notice to the buriers, that they fetch all those scattered bones to
the common burying place of Hamon-gog.

16. "And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Tims
shall they cleanse the land."] — And there shall be a city erected
near to this common burial-place ; and ye shall give it a name of
multitude, because of the innumerable company of those bodies
which shall lie there interred.

17. "Gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I
do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of
Israel," &c.] — Assemble yourselves on every side to that great
slaughter that I have made of the bodies of men ; wherewith ye
may feast yourselves abundantly.

So verses 18 and 19.

29. " For I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel,
saith the Lord GOD."] — I have plentifully stored my Church with
graces of sanctification, saith the Lord God.

XL. 2. " In the visions of God brought he me into the land of
Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as
the frame of a city on the south."] — I was in vision brought, as
me seemed, into the land of Israel ; and was, by the Spirit of God,
set upon a very high hill, even the hill of Sion, under the side
whereof was the frame of the city Jerusalem, on the south.

3. " And he brought me thither, and, behold, there was a man,
whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of
flax in his hand, and a measuring reed."] — And, behold, there was
a man, indeed the Son of God, whose appearance was bright and
glorious, like unto burnished brass ; and he had in his hand a line
of flax to measure the outward and more spacious courts of the
temple, and a measuring reed for the walls and buildings, &c.

EZEK1EL XXXIX. 15.— XLIII. 7. 573

5. " And behold a wall on the outside of the house round about,
and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by the
cubit and an hand breadth : so he measured the breadth of the
building, one reed ; and the height, one reed."] — And, behold, he
shewed me a description of the temple, in all the courts thereof,
and the three walls encompassing them : and first, of the outmost
wall, which environs the rest round about; and in his hand he
had a measuring reed of six cubits long, every cubit whereof had
one handful added to it, above the common and ordinary length
thereof; so as, while the common cubit was but of five handfuls,
this cubit was according to the rate of six handfuls to each cubit :
so he measured this outmost wall, and found it one whole reed,
that is, six cubits in breadth, and one whole reed, or six cubits in
height.

6. " Then came he unto the gate which looketh toward the
east, and went up the stairs thereof, and measured the threshold
of the gate, which was one reed broad ; and the other threshold
of the gate, which ivas one reed broad."] — Then, when he had
measured the outmost wall that encompasseth the whole mount
of Sion, he went right from the east to the westward, till he came
to the next inclosure of the temple ; and, whereas there are five
gates in that wall, one to the east, another to the west, one to the
north, and two to the south, he went to the eastern gate, and
ascended up the stairs thereof; and, whereas the gate was double-
leaved, he measured the breadth of the threshold, which was six
large cubits broad, in either of the leaves of that gate.

7. " And every little chamber was one reed long, and one reed
broad ; and between the little chambers were five cubits."] — And,
whereas there were little rooms made in the inside of the gate,
backing upon the wall, each of those rooms were six large cubits
broad, &c.

The rest, unto chapter xliii, is a local description only of the
measure of the several buildings pertaining to the temple,
which cannot be expressed in plainer terms ; all the difficulty
of those passages being only in the apprehension of the
fashion and quantity of that fabric.

XLIII. 7. " Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place
of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the
children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of
Israel no more defile, neither they, nor" &c.] — Son of man, I will
hereafter purge my Church from those foul corruptions where-

574. PARAPHRASE UPON

with it hath been blemished ; so as my people shall no more pro
fane my holy place and defile themselves with their abominable
idolatries, nor by the carcasses of those which they offered to
their idols, in the high places.

8. " In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and
their post by my posts, and the wall between me and them,"&c.]
— In setting up their own false and superstitious worship, toge
ther with the true worship of my name and in contestation there
with, &c.

9. " Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcasses
of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them
for ever."] — Now let them put away from me their idolatries, and
the murders they have done in sacrificing men to their idols, and
I will continue my gracious presence with them for ever.

XLIV. i . " Then he brought me back the way of the gate of
the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east ; and it was
shut."] — Now, whereas there were two degrees or distinctions of
the sanctuary, the one which was called the Holy Place, the other
called The Most Holy Place, or the Holy of Holies; he brought
me, in the Spirit, to the entering of the gate of the outer sanc
tuary, which looked eastward ; and that gate, which I had seen
formerly open, as that by which the glory of God visibly entered
into the temple, was now shut.

2. " Then said the LORD unto me ; This gate shall be shut, it
shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it ; because the
LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall
be shut."] — Then said the Lord unto me ; This gate shall con
tinue shut, and no ordinary person shall ever enter in by it ; be
cause the Lord God of Israel hath honoured and hallowed it by
entering in thereby ; therefore it shall never be put to any com
mon use.

3. " It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat
bread before the LORD ; he shall enter by the way of the porch of
that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same."] — It is for
the prince of that holy tribe, the high priest only : he alone shall
be allowed to eat the consecrated bread within the holy place,
and to have ingress and egress that way.

7. " In that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, un-
circumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanc
tuary, to pollute it."] — In that ye have ordained and appointed
those to be priests in my sanctuary that are strangers both in

EZEKIEL XLIII.8.— XLIV. ly. 575

blood and in religion, and have given them a place of ministra
tion in my temple to pollute it, &c.

9. " No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in
flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is
among the children of Israel."] — No stranger that is uncircum
cised, either spiritually or corporally, wicked in heart and life,
and an alien from my Church, shall be admitted to serve in my
sanctuary, although he be one that lives among my people.

10. " And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when
Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their
idols; they shall even bear their iniquity."] — And those of the
tribe of Levi which, being in the office of priesthood, were, in the
defection of the rest of Israel, carried away to idolatry, they shall
undergo punishment for their sin.

11. " Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having
charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house :
they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people,
and they shall stand before them to minister unto them."] — Yet
they shall not utterly be excluded from the meaner businesses
that belong to my temple ; as from taking charge of the gates of
the house, &c. : they shall be allowed to slay the burnt offering,
and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall minister to the
people ; but they shall not be admitted to offer any sacrifice to
God for them.

1 2. " Because they ministered unto them before their idols,
&c."] Because they polluted themselves in ministering unto the
people in their idolatrous sacrifices, &c.

1 8. " They shall not gird themselves with any thing that
causeth sweat."] — They shall not gird about them any woollen
garments, which may cause their bodies to sweat ; that those holy
vestments may be soiled, or any outward uncleanliness may be
caused thereby.

19. " And when they go forth into the utter court, even into the
utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein
they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they
shall put on other garments ; and they shall not sanctify the
people with their garments/'] — When they are before God in his
temple and service, they shall be clad with peculiar and holy vest
ments ; but when they go forth amongst the people, they shall
not wear those hallowed robes, as if in their familiar conversation,

576 PARAPHRASE UPON

they would tie thorn to a religious observance, and an expectation
of holiness to be derived from them.

XLV. i. " Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the land for
inheritance, ye shall offer an oblation unto the LORD, an holy por
tion of the land : the length shall be the length of five and twenty
thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand."" — When
ye shall divide the land by lot for inheritance, ye shall set apart
a meet parcel thereof for holy uses ; even for the service of God,
and the maintenance of his priests : the length of it, thus sepa
rated, shall be five and twenty thousand reeds, according to the
large measure of cubits ; and the breadth shall be ten thousand,
&c.

2. " Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in
length, with five hundred in breadth, square round about ; and
fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof."] — Of this por
tion of ground there shall be a plot laid forth for the building of
the sanctuary, which shall be, in the whole extent thereof, five
hundred reeds in length, and so many in breadth : it shall be full
square ; and for fifty cubits round about the bounds thereof shall
be waste ground, free from any employment of building.

7. " And a portion shall be for the prince on the one side and
on the other side of the oblation of the holy portion, and of the
possession of the city, before the oblation of the holy portion, and
before the possession of the city, from the west side westward, and
from the east side eastward : and the length shall be over against
one of the portions, from the west border unto the east border."] —
And on both sides of that portion of land which is laid forth for
the site of the sanctuary and of the city and for the maintenance
of the priests, shall be a portion of land laid out for the prince : on
the west side shall be his western portion, and on the east side his
eastern portion ; and the length of it shall be over against each
of these portions, from the west borders of it to the east.

8. "In the land shall be his possession in Israel : and my
princes shall no more oppress my people."] — I do appoint him a
constant and fixed possession of land in Israel, for a royal main
tenance of him and his family ; and my princes and governors
shall not be put, for want of a due and settled provision, to raise
means to themselves, by the oppression of my people, &c.

XLVI. i . " Thus saith the Lord GOD ; The gate of the inner
court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six Avorking

EZEKIEL XLV. i.— XLVJI. i. 577

days ; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of
the new moon it shall be opened."] — The east gate of the third
wall, which is of the court of the priests wherein the temple was
built, shall be shut the six working days ; but on the sabbath,
and on the first day of the month, which is the day of the new
moon, it shall be opened.

2. "And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of
that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and
the priest shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings,
and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate."] — And the
prince only shall enter by the way of that gate ; and, when he
is to enter, shall stand at the post of that gate until the priest
shall have prepared his burnt offering and peace offering ; and
then, when they have made this safe way for him, he shall come
in, having first bowed down and worshipped at the threshold of
the gate, &c.

3. " Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door
of this gate before the LORD in the sabbaths and in the new
moons."] — Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the
door of this gate before the Lord ; but they shall not presume to
enter in by it; only they shall bow and worship aloof at that
door on the sabbaths and new moons.

10. "And the prince in the midst of them, when they go in,
shall go in ; and when they go forth, shall go forth."] — And the
prince shall observe the same times of my service with my people ;
both for his coming in and for his going forth.

20. "That they bear them not out into the outer court, to
sanctify the people."] — There they shall boil the trespass offering,
and bake the meat offering ; that they bear them not out into
the outer court, where the people are allowed to assemble, as if
the common sort of people should share with them in their sanc-
tification, since this privilege of these holy services rests in their
own persons.

XLVII. i. " Afterward he brought me again unto the door
of the house ; and, behold, waters issued out from under the
threshold of the house eastward : for the forefront of the house
stood toward the cast, and the waters came down from under
from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar."]
—Afterward, this heavenly and divine guide of mine brought me
back from this outer court, where were the boiling houses of the
sacrifices, unto the door of the temple ; and, behold, from under

BP. HALL, VOL. III. P P

578 PARAPHRASE UPON

that door, by which tho glory of God had formerly entered, and
which was now shut, there issued a stream of waters ; to signify
the plenty of graces which are derived from God to his Church ;
which are yet raised by degrees, and, from shallow and weak be
ginnings, arise to great height and perfection.
So verses 2-5.

7. " Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the
river were very many trees on the one side and on the other."] —
And to show the plentiful fruit that arises from these graces of
his Church and children, behold, upon the bank of this holy and
spiritual stream, there were many and fruitful trees growing on
both sides thereof.

8. " Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the
east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea :
which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be
healed."] — These waters shall pass through the whole land ; for
they shall flow towards the east country, which is the higher part
of Judea, and from thence into the champaign country thereof ;
and so fall into the sea, whose unwholesome waters shall be there
with healed : even so shall the sanctifying graces of God's Spirit
be enlarged over his whole Church, through the world ; and shall
sweeten and season all the souls that shall be therewith endued.

9. " And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth,
which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live :
and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these
waters shall come thither : for they shall be healed ; and every
thing shall live whither the river cometh."] — And it shall come
to pass, that all those which shall be partakers of these holy
graces shall live for ever ; and there shall be very great increase
of all good works and conscionable obedience, wheresoever they
shall be found.

So also verse 12.

10. "And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand
upon it from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim; they shall be & place
to spread forth nets ; their fish shall be according to their kinds,
as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.-"] — And it shall
come to pass, that my Church shall be plentifully stored with
holy and able teachers, which are fishers of men ; and they shall
spread abroad their wholesome doctrines all over the earth ; and
they shall take large draughts of souls, which shall by their min
istry be converted to me.

EZEKIEL XLVII. 7.— XLVIII. 20. 579

u. "But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof
shall not be healed ; they shall be given to salt."] — But those
which are resolutely wicked, and given up to a reprobate sense,
they shall not be reformed or bettered by these means of salva
tion ; but shall be left to their wonted obduredness and corruption,
and so to their final condemnation.

15. "And this shall be the border of the land toward the
north side, from the great sea, the way of Hethlon, as men go to
Zedad ;"] — And the extent of my Church shall be so enlarged as
that it shall reach all the world over, even from one end of the
world to the other : which I would have to be figured, by the
extending of the bounds of this repromised land towards the
north, from the Mediterranean sea all along the coasts of the
kingdom of Damascus.

So also verses 16-20.

XLVIII. 8. " And by the border of Judah, from the east side
unto the west side, shall be the offering which ye shall offer of
five and twenty thousand reeds in breadth, and in length as one
of the other parts." &c.] — And bordering upon the inheritance
or possession of Judah shall be from the east to the west that
portion of five and twenty thousand reeds which is set apart for
the sanctuary and the priests, -&c.

15. " And the five thousand, that are left in the breadth over
against the five and twenty thousand, shall be a profane place for
the city.v>] — Of that ground that is thus separated for public use,
which is twenty-five thousand reeds, ten thousand reeds being set
apart for the priests, and ten thousand for the Levites, there will
be five thousand remaining in the breadth thereof for secular use,
even for the building of the city, &c.

19. " And they that serve the city shall serve it out of all the
tribes of Israel."] — And those that are appointed for the public
service and ministration of the city shall not only be employed
in the attendance of the ordinary inhabitants thereof, but shall
be serviceable to all that shall resort thither from all the tribes
of Israel.

20. " All the oblation shall be five and twenty thousand by
five and twenty thousand : ye shall offer the holy oblation four
square, with the possession of the city/5] — All the portion that
shall be set apart for these holy uses shall be five and twenty
thousand reeds square ; the length being equal to the breadth ;

p p 2

580 PARAPHRASE UPON

that parcel of the ground for the city being taken into the
measure.

30. " And these are the goings out of the city on the north
side, four thousand and five hundred measures.1"] — And these are
the utmost limits or reach of the grounds belonging to the city
of the north side, 4500 measures, &c.

DANIEL.

I. 2. " Which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house
of his god ; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of
his god."] — Which he carried into the land of Chaldea, to the
temple of his false god ; not so much for the ordinary use of his
priests, as to be laid up for monuments in the treasure house that
pertained to his idol god, even Bel, the god of the Babylonians,
Assyrians, and Persians.

4. " And such as had ability in them to stand in the king's
palace.1"] — Such as might be fit, both for birth and person and
parts, to be attendants upon the king's person, &c.

8. " But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile
himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine
which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the
eunuchs that he might not defile kimself."] — But Daniel, finding
by the change of their names that there was no other meant but
a change of their religion and manners, resolved to hold his own
holy courses, and determined in himself not to eat of those
Babylonian dishes that were prepared for him by the prince of
the eunuchs ; which he could not possibly do without much
danger of defilement ; since both their meat and manner of dress
ing had in them much contrariety to the law of God : therefore
he requested the prince of the eunuchs that he might enjoy the
liberty of his conscience, and might not be pressed to the use of
a prohibited diet.

19. "Therefore stood they before the king."] — They were spe
cially appointed, therefore, to wait upon the king's person.

II. i . " And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchad
nezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit
was troubled, and his sleep brake from him."] — In the second
year after Daniel and his fellows were admitted to the attendance
of Nebuchadnezzar, the king Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a divina-
tory and perplexed dream, wherewith he was much disquieted ;

DANIEL I. 19.— II. 1-40. 581

both for the matter of the dream and for the loss of it out of his
memory, the thought whereof did so afflict him that his sleep
departed from him.

5. " The thing is gone from me : if ye will not make known
unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof."] — I have
utterly forgotten the thing that I dreamed, which for the time
did exceedingly affect me : now then, that which I require of you
is, to recall to my thoughts the dream that I had, and to give me
the interpretation of it, &c.

9. " For ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak
before me, till the time be changed."] — Ye have intended only to
delude me with lying and dilatory answers, until some other occa
sions may divert me from this earnest inquiry, &c.

22. The light dwelleth with him."] — With him and in him is
all perfection of knowledge and power of illumination.

39. "And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to
thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule
over all the earth."] — After thy line is expired, there shall arise
another kingdom of the Medes and Persians, who shall sway the
sceptre ; yet so as they shall not arise to that glory and magnifi
cence which thou hast attained : these are the breasts and arms
of silver which thou sawest joined to the golden head of thine
empire. And after this succession of government is ended, there
shall come a third kingdom in the place thereof, which shall be
that of the Grecians ; less glorious and excellent than the other
of the Medes, which shall be as brass in comparison of their silver
or thy gold ; the extent of which third empire shall reach to the
rule of the whole earth.

40. " And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron : foras
much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things : and as
iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise."]
— The fourth kingdom shall be that which shall arise out of the
division of the Grecian monarchy upon the death of Alexander
the Great ; in which the several kings of Asia the Less, and Sy
ria and Egypt, shall bear the sway ; but especially that of Seleu-
cus Mcanor, which shall have the rule of Syria and Babylonia,
and shall overtop the rest, and offer most violence to the Church
of God ; which shall be as the legs of iron, in respect of strength
and hardness ; for as iron breaketh all things in pieces, so shall
this tyrannical government crush and extremely oppress God's
people.

582 PARAPHRASE UPON

41. " And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of pot
ters" clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided ; but
there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou
sawest the iron mixed with miry clay."] — And whereas thou
sawest the feet and toes, part of clay and part of iron, it fore
shows to thee the same fourth kingdom divided in itself, and
in process of time weakened and sensibly abated of the former
power : the iron of it figures strength and power ; but the clay,
fragility and weakness.

42. " And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of
clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.""]
— And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay,
so those substitutions and undergovernments, which shall be
subordinated to this fourth kingdom, shall be of a mistempered
mixture ; some of them strong, and able to subsist ; others, weak
and brittle.

43. "And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they
shall mingle themselves with the seed of men : but they shall not
cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.""] —
And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with a baser kind of clay, it
foresignifies, that these kingdoms, thus divided, shall endeavour
to unite and conjoin themselves by leagues of marriages ; for Be
renice, the daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphus king of Egypt,
shall be matched with Antiochus king of Syria; but this con
junction shall not hold, neither shall be any more possible to con
tinue, than that it is possible that iron and clay should make and
hold a perfect mixture.

44. " And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven
set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed : and the king
dom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces
and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever."] —
And in the days of some of those kings which shall be derived
from this stock, and namely of Herod, who shall tyrannically
usurp the kingdom of Judah, shall the God of heaven send the
Messiah ; and shall erect that spiritual kingdom of his which
shall never be destroyed ; and this kingdom shall be proper to
God's Church, and shall be administered and ruled only by his
anointed King, the Saviour of the world ; and shall outwear the
forenamed monarchies, and, when they are extinct and forgotten,
shall last for evermore.

45. " Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of

DANIEL II. 41.— III. 12. 583

the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron,
the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold/'] — This Messiah is
the stone which thou sawest cut out of the mountain without
hands ; that is, ordained and sent from heaven by the eternal
counsel and decree of the Almighty, who, by his omnipotent
power and infinite wisdom, hath determined to subvert all these
successions of kingdoms and monarchies according to his good
pleasure; &c.

46. " Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and
worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an
oblation and sweet odours unto him."] — Then the king Nebu
chadnezzar, as admiring the prophetical spirit of Daniel, and
imagining some divine power to be in him, worshipped Daniel »
and commanded his people and servants that they should offer
sacrifices to him, as to a more than human person.

49. " Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-nego, over the affairs of the province of Ba
bylon : but Daniel sat in the gate of the king."] — Then Daniel,
as desiring to prefer his partners and colleagues, made suit to the
king that he would make Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego,
the chief rulers over the provinces of Babylon : but Daniel was
appointed to be the prime officer of the king's court.

III. i . ' ' Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold,
whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six
cubits : he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Ba
bylon."] — Then the Chaldeans, moved with envy at these Jewish
governors, and- desiring to have some advantage against the Jews,
moved Nebuchadnezzar to erect an image of gold, as a monu
ment of his own greatness, seventy foot high and nine foot broad ;
which he set up accordingly, not in some obscure desert, but in
the well known and frequented plain of Dura, in the province of
Babylon, for the use of public adoration.

12. "There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the
affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-
nego ; these men, 0 king, have not regarded thee : they serve
not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set
up."] — There are certain Jews, whom at the request of Daniel
thou hast made governors over the province of Babylon, even
Shadrach, &c. ; these men, 0 king, have not given that respect to
thee which thy greatness requires; they arc refractory to thy
commands, and enemies to thy gods ; refusing to serve them, or to

584 PARAPHRASE UPON

worship thy golden image ; which is so much more intolerable, for
that they have dared thus to affront thee in that very province,
the charge whereof thou hast committed unto them.

1 6. "0 Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in
this matter."] — O king Nebuchadnezzar, we are not to seek of a
ready answer to this charge of thine ; neither can we take any
thought to avoid this danger which thou threatenost unto us.

17. "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver
us.11] — If thou have firmly and resolutely determined to deal thus
with us, we know that our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver
us, &c.

25. " And the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."] —
And the form of the fourth is very bright and glorious, above the
possibility of all human beauty and resplendence.

28. " And have changed the kings word."] — And have boldly
varied from that charge which was given by the king, &c.

IV. 8. " Whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name
of my God."] — Whose name was, since his coming to Babylon,
changed to Belteshazzar, in allusion to the name of Bel, the great
god of the Babylonians, &c.

13. " And, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from
heaven."] — And, behold, an holy angel of God came down from
heaven ; one who is charged with the careful inspection of these
earthly things. And he cried, &c.

17. "This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the
demand by the word of the holy ones.""] — This charge is not given
by the sentence of one angel alone, but by the joint consent of all
the powers of heaven, &c.

19. "Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonied
for one hour, and his thoughts troubled him."] — Then Daniel,
whose name was Belteshazzar, was much troubled in his thoughts
for the space of a whole hour ; not with the disquisition of the
signification of the dream, but with the consideration of those great
and fearful things which were portended and foresignified by that
dream unto king Nebuchadnezzar.

25. "That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling
shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to
eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven,
and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most
High ruleth in the kingdom of men."] — It is decreed in heaven,
and the execution of it is committed to the angels of God, that

DANIEL III. 1 6.— V. 2. 585

thou shalt be driven from the society of men ; and, in the extre
mity of a sottish melancholy, thou shalt both spend thy time
amongst the beasts of the field, and repute thyself as one of them,
and accordingly demean thyself botli for thy diet and lodging ; so
as, whilst thou liest abroad, thou shalt be wet with the dew of
heaven ; and seven years shall pass over thee in this forlorn con
dition, till God have throughly humbled thee, and taught thee to
know and acknowledge his infinite power, &c.

27. " Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto
thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities
by showing mercy to the poor ; if it may be a lengthening of thy
tranquillity."] — Wherefore, 0 king, as it hath pleased thee to in
quire my interpretation of this dream of thine, so now vouchsafe
to accept and regard the counsel which I do thereupon give thee;
since God hath threatened these things against thee, be thou
careful to turn away from those sins wherewith thou hast provoked
him unto an holy and righteous carriage before him : instead of
those sinful courses which thou hast hitherto taken, resolve now
to demean thyself religiously towards God, and mercifully towards
his afflicted people ; and if there be any possible means to con
tinue thy peace and welfare, this is it which I have now prescribed
thee.

33. "And his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his
hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds'
claws."] — All that time he endured, abroad, the extremity of the
cold in winter, and of the scorching heat in summer ; until his hair
was overgrown to cover his body in a savage manner, and his nails
were grown over his fingers like claws ; so as he was become not
more neglected than monstrous and deformed.

V. i . ' ' Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand
of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand."] — Now when
those seventy years were expired which God had appointed for
the reign of Nebuchadnezzar and his issue, Belshazzar, his de
bauched grandchild, made a sumptuous feast to a thousand of his
lords, and, beside his custom, sat with them openly at that royal
banquet.

2. " Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring
the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar
had taken out of the temple which ivas in Jerusalem ; that the
king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink
therein."] — Belshazzar, while he was drinking wine, commanded,

586 PARAPHRASE UPON

in a scorn and reproach to God, to bring forth those vessels of
gold and of silver which his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had
brought out from the temple of God which was in Jerusalem ;
that the king and his princes, his wives and concubines, might
please themselves in insulting upon that God whose spoils they
were.

So verse 3.

4. "They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver,
of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone."] — And as they drank
their wine in these once-hallowed vessels, they triumphed over
that God to whom they had been consecrated; and magnified
the power of their idols of gold and silver, &c., as if by their
might these victories had been achieved and these rich spoils

obtained.

5. " In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and

wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall
of the king's palace : and the king saw the part of the hand that
wrote."] — In the very same hour while they were offering this
affront to the God of heaven, it pleased the just and powerful God
to show that he took notice of this presumptuous impiety ; and
therefore he caused a sudden and dreadful apparition of the fingers
of a man's hand as it were writing over against the candlestick,
where it might best be seen upon the plaister of the wall of the
banqueting house ; and the king only, at first, saw these fingers
that thus wrote.

6. " Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts
troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his
knees smote one against another."] — Then the king's colour began
to go away, and he waxed pale and ghastly ; and his mind was
so troubled at this fearful and strange sight, that he grew as it
were suddenly paralytic : his joints seemed as if they had been
quite loosed, and in an extremity of trembling his knees smote
one against another.

25. "And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE,
TEKEL, UPHARSIN."]— And this is the writing that is written,
Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin ; that is, God hath perfectly num
bered and reckoned up the days, both of the Babylonish empire
and the Jewish captivity, and their utmost date is now come : and
the same God hath well considered all thy ways and actions, and
hath found thce utterly unanswerable both to his benefits and to
thine own place : and therefore hath determined to cast thee aside

DANIEL V. 4.— VI. 10. 587

as light gold, not fit for further use ; and now hath taken a course
to cut thee off from the earth, and to give thy kingdom into the
hands of the Medes and Persians.

30. " In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans
slain."] — And accordingly that very night Belshazzar the king
was slain by the hands of Gadatas and Gobryas, two of Cyrus's
noblemen, who, that very night, surprised Babylon, and became
lord of that monarchy.

31. " And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about
threescore and two years old."] — And Darius the Median, father-
in-law to Cyrus, by the consent and appointment of Cyrus, whom
he had aided in this war, took upon him the kingdom, being
threescore and two years old.

VI. 4. " Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion
against Daniel concerning the kingdom ; but they could find none
occasion nor fault."] — Then the other two presidents, and the
hundred and twenty princes, sought to get some advantage against
Daniel, in matter of government, or accounts for the kings profits;
but they could find none, &c.

7. " All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the
princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together
to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that who
soever shall ask a petition of any god or man for thirty days, save
of thee, 0 king, he shall be cast into the den of lions."] — All we,
the presidents and governors and princes of thy kingdoms, have
consulted which way we may do thee the most honour, and most
ingratiate thee with thy subjects, now at thy first entrance into thy
throne ; and we have found no way more fair and plausible than
this ; we have decreed that none of thy subjects shall for the
space of thirty days make any petition to any god or man save
to thee, 0 king ; that by this means they may be brought and
inured to an awful and divine conceit of thy greatness, and may
be encouraged to have access unto thee for the more endearing
of thee to them, upon the grant of their suits ; and if any man
shall violate this decree we have sentenced him to be cast into the
den of lions.

10. "Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he
went into his house ; and his windows being open in his chamber
toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day,
and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime."]
— Now when Daniel knew that this writing was signed, which he

588 PARAPHRASE UPON

well understood to be irrevocable, he, notwithstanding, continued
his wonted devotions to his God ; he therefore, being in his house
not willing to conceal his pious exercises, opened the window of
his chamber to the south-west-ward, that he might, according to
Solomon's word and the practice of God's people, look towards the
Temple, though now demolished : and kneeling upon his knees,
three times a day, at morning, noon, and evening, he prayed to
God, and gave thanks before his God as he had wont.

14. "And set his heart on Daniel to deliver him," &c.] — He
bent all his thoughts, and laboured by all means possible to de
liver Daniel.

VII. 2. " Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night,
and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great
sea."] — I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, to show me the
blustering and unsteady state of all these earthly kingdoms and
affairs, methought the four winds of the heaven blew and fought
as it were together upon the great sea.

3. " And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse ono
from another."] — And from that sea, which signifies the world,
there arose four great beasts, diverse one from another ; to re
present those four great monarchies, whereby the kingdoms of
the earth are swayed, which had and shall have different forms of
administration.

4. " The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings : I be
held till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up
from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a
man's heart was given to it."] — The first, which was the Baby
lonian monarchy, was a lion in respect of the power and fierce
ness thereof; but this lion had eagle's wings, to show the incre
dible swiftness and speed of his conquests. And I beheld, till
those several regions and commands, wherewith the Babylonian
had feathered himself and furnished his empire, were plucked
away by the hands of the Medes and Persians ; so as now these
wings of his sovereignty being pulled and plumed wherewith he
formerly soared up, he was fain to trust to his feet, and therein
to find his own weakness ; whereby his courage was so abated,
that, instead of the stoutness of a lion, he was glad to take up
with the weak heart of a man.

5. " And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it
raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of
it between the tecthof it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, do-

DANIEL VI. 1 4. -VII. 8. 589

vour much flesh."] — The second monarchy of the Persians was
figured by the second beast : it was like a bear, less noble and
generous than the Babylonian ; more slow and dull, but no less
cruel ; and it raised up one dominion of all those former king
doms united to the Babylonian empire : and this devouring beast
had three ribs in his mouth, to show the torn and wasted re
mainders of all those kingdoms, in all the three coasts of the
known habitable world, which he hath greedily eaten up ; to
whom it was, by the just decree of the Almighty, encharged, that
he should rouse up himself, and destroy many nations, in revenge
of those quarrels that God had against them.

6. " After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which
had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl ; the beast had also
four heads; and dominion was given to it."] — After this I be
held, and lo, the third monarchy, of the Macedonian or Grecian,
being presented by a leopard, succeeded; more fierce and subtle
than that other of the Medes ; which, by reason of the exceeding
swiftness of despatch, especially of Alexander the Great in his
achievements, had four wings attributed unto it : this great em
pire was divided, upon the death of Alexander, into four king
doms; and for the time it was of great power, and large do
minion.

7. "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth
beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly ; and it had
great iron teeth : it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped
the residue with the feet of it : and it ivas diverse from all the
beasts that were before it ; and it had ten horns."] — After this,
there was in my night visions represented unto me the tyrannous
Asiatic kingdom, in the figure of a fourth beast, which was dread
ful and terrible, and exceedingly strong : it had great teeth of
iron, to signify those cruel pressures wherewith it should tear
and grind the distressed remainders of God's people : and it did
accordingly exercise extreme tyranny over them, by devouring
them, and crashing their bones in pieces, and stamping them
under his feet ; and this beast, as it could not, by reason of the
many varieties which were found in this government, be figured
by any one shape, so was it, in the fell and bloody disposition
thereof, quite different from the former : and in this regiment
there shall ten kings succeed; which were represented by the
ten horns of this beast.

8. " I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among

590 PARAPHRASE UPON

them another little horn, before whom there were three of the
first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn
tvere," &c.] — And I took good view of these ten horns, which
signified the ten kings; and I saw one little horn, which came
forth amongst the rest, and the last of the ten, which in the
coming up defeated three of those ten : and, behold, in this horn
there were eyes of sharp understanding and quick conceit ; but
withal there was a mouth which was full of blasphemy.

9. " I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient
of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair
of his head like the pure wool : his throne was like the fiery
flame, and his wheels as burning fire."] — As in my vision I saw
the erection and the standing of these great monarchical thrones,
so I saw the casting of them down by the longsuifering yet just
hand of the Almighty : for which purpose I saw a glorious repre
sentation of his judgmentseat; and therein was a majestical re
semblance of the Judge, even the Eternal God, whose being was
before all times; who was all compassed about with perfect
purity and righteousness, signified by the whiteness of his gar
ment and his hair ; his throne was full of terror, even like to a
fiery flame ; and the wheels on which it stood were as a burning
fire, to show that his judgments will unavoidably find out his
enemies and consume them.

10. "A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him:
thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times
ten thousand stood before him : the judgment was set, and the
books were opened."] — To the same purpose was there a repre
sentation of a fiery stream, issuing forth from before him ; signi
fying the execution of his vengeance upon his enemies : infinite
numbers of glorious spirits stood before him, to wait upon his
Majesty ; and, according to the forms of human judicature, there
were laid open the acts and most certain records of those things
which had been done by these four beasts, but especially by the
last of them.

11. "I beheld then because of the voice of the great words
which the horn spake : I beheld even till the beast was slain, and
his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame."] — I beheld
then, and I saw the last monarchy, and that proud horn thereof,
the last king of that rank, whose mouth had dared to speak those
great blasphemies, called to reckoning for those notorious im
pieties, and himself destroyed and cast into that unquenchable fire.

DANIEL VII. 9-18. 591

12. "As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their
dominion taken away : yet their lives were prolonged for a sea
son and time."] — As concerning the rest of those monarchies,
they had, by the just decree of this Judge, their dominions weak
ened, and in a sort extinguished ; yet so, that they had some
small remainders of a being, till the appointed time that God had
set for the llomans, to put a full despatch unto them.

13. "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son
of man, came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient
of days, and they brought him near before him.'"] — Moreover, I
had, in my night visions, represented unto me one, like to Jesus
Christ, the Son of man, who is withal the Eternal Son of God ;
who, to show his deity, came in the clouds of heaven to descend
to the earth : and now, in the fulness of time, came to take our
nature upon him, and to accomplish the great work of man's re
demption ; who presented himself before God the Father as Me
diator betwixt him and mankind.

14. "And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a
kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve
him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not
pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.1']
— And there was all power given him in heaven and earth ; and
he was, by the eternal decree of God, appointed to be the glo
rious King of his Church for ever ; so as there can be neither any
bounds nor any term of his dominion.

15. "I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my
body, and the visions of my head troubled me."] — I Daniel was
much perplexed in my thoughts at the consideration of these
wondrous visions, and was unquiet in myself, till I might attain
to the interpretation thereof.

1 6. "I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked
him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the
interpretation of the things."] — I came therefore, inethought, to
one of those glorious angels which stood about the throne, and in
quired of him the meaning and purpose of these representa
tions, &c.

17. "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which
shall arise out of the earth.-"] — These great beasts, which are four,
are the resemblances of four great empires, which shall succes
sively arise on the earth ; the Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian,
Asian.

1 8. "But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom,

592 PARAPHRASE UPON

and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever."] —
But at last, after all the persecutions and oppressions of violent
enemies, the Church and saints of God shall prevail, and shall
have and enjoy the benefit of the perpetual and peaceable govern
ment of Christ their King for evermore.

19. "Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast."] —
Then was I earnestly inquisitive after the signification of the
fourth beast, &c. See verses 7 and 8.

21. " I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints,
and prevailed against them."] — I beheld, and that last horn, which
was the last of the race of Seleucus, persecuted God's people ex
ceedingly, and prevailed against them.

23. " Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth king
dom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and
shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break
it in pieces."] — Thus he said, The fourth beast resembleth the
fourth of these great imperial governments, which shall be worse
to God's people than all the rest : this shall be the usurped king
dom of the posterity of Seleucus Nicanor, which, upon the ex
tinction of the line of Alexander the Great, shall set up a new
kingdom in Babylon ; and tyrannise most cruelly over the Church
of God, the people of the Jews, and waste and destroy it to his
utmost.

24 " And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that
shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be
diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings."] — And
the ten horns are ten several kings, which shall arise and succeed
out of this stock, in this government; and the last of the ten,
which shall be more cruel than his fellows, shall be that bloody
king Antiochus Epiphanes, who shall defeat and displace three
kings to make room for himself.

25. "And he shall speak great words against the most High,
and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to
change times and laws : and they shall be given into his hand
until a time and times and the dividing of time."] — And he shall
blasphemously and impiously oppose himself against the religion
of the most high God ; and shall endeavour, all he can, to root
out the Jewish people, and shall go about to change or abrogate
their solemnities and their laws; and they shall, in the just pro
ceedings of God, be given up into his hand, for the space of three
years, and somewhat more.

26. " But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his

DANIEL VII. 19.— VIII. 3. 593

dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end."] — But the
powerful and righteous Judge of the world, who noteth all his
wicked courses, shall soon call him to account for all his cursed
impiety and intolerable cruelty, and shall bring his kingdom to
utter ruin.

27. "And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the
kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of
the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him."] — And
after this, the Son of God being exhibited upon earth, his Church
shall be enlarged, so as all the kingdoms and dominions upon
earth shall submit themselves to the regiment of their God and
Saviour.

28. " Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my
cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in
me : but I kept the matter in my heart."] — Hitherto, I have re
lated the speech which the angel had with me concerning these
great affairs of the Church and the world ; as for me, Daniel, my
thoughts were much perplexed with the consideration of these
wonderful visions, and my very countenance could not but bewray
much trouble in my heart ; but I did carefully lay up and medi
tate on all these dreadful representations.

VIII. 2. " And I saw in a vision ; and it came to pass, when I
saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the pro
vince of Elam ; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of
Ulai."] — There was a second vision represented unto me ; wherein
rnethought I was at Shushan, in the royal palace, within the bor
ders of Persia, and was sitting by the river Ulai, which runneth
by the said palace and city.

3. "Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there
stood before the river a ram which had two horns : and the two
' horns were high ; but one was higher than the other, and the
higher came up last."] — Then I lifted up mine eyes, and I saw-
certain other resemblances of those same three kingdoms and
monarchies, which shall follow upon the expiration of this of Ba
bylon, which is now near to an end : the first whereof was repre
sented to me under the type of a ram with two horns, in signifi
cation of the two kingdoms united of Media and Persia ; and these
two sovereignties were very high and great, but the Median go
vernment was in time before that of Persia, and the higher in
power was the later in time.

BP. HALL, VOL. III. Q q.

594 PARAPHRASE UPON

4. "I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and
southward ; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither w as
there any that could deliver out of his hand ; but lie did accord
ing to his will, and became great."] — I saw this Persian mon
archy assailing all the nations round about, both towards the
west, and the north, and the south ; neither could any kingdom
stand before it, or be free from the power and subjugation thereof;
by the spoils and ruins of all which, this kingdom became great.

5. " And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from
the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the
ground : and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.""] —
And as I was considering, behold, a rough goat, figuring the
Grecian or Macedonian empire, came from the west, and invaded
all the kingdoms of the earth ; and he came on so swiftly, as if
he had not touched the ground in his passage : and this empire
was famoused and enlarged by an eminent king, which was Alex
ander the Great, who is set forth by that notable horn, which arose
between the eyes of this Grecian goat.

6. " And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had
seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of
his power."] — And this Macedonian monarch came to the Persian
ram, which had those two great titles and kingdoms, and set
upon him in the fury of his great and unresistible power.

7. "And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved
with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two
horns : and there was no power in the ram to stand before him."]
— And I saw him assault the Persian monarchy, being moved with
choler and rage, and smite it, and bite off his two great domin
ions of Media and Persia : and there was no power in the Persian
to stand before him, &c.

8. " Therefore the he goat waxed very great : and when he
was strong, the great horn was broken ; and for it came up four'
notable ones toward the four winds of heaven."] — Therefore the
Macedonian monarchy waxed very great and strong : and when
it was at the strongest, Alexander the Great, who was the remark
able horn betwixt the eyes of that goat, in his return from his
eastern conquest, died ; and in his stead came up four governors,
which were the chief commanders under him, and divided his
kingdoms amongst them, even in all the coasts of the world : Cas-
sander possessed himself of Macedonia ; Seleucus, of Syria ; Anti-
gonus, of Asia the Less ; and Ptolemy, of Egypt.

DANIEL VIII. 4-1 3. 595

9. " And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which
waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east,
and toward the pleasant land."] — And shortly after, the govern
ment coming into two hands, Seleucus of Syria and Ptolemy of
Egypt, out of the one of them, namely Seleucus, there came forth
at last a king, which seemed but of small power at his first begin
nings, even Antiochus Epiphanes, who became afterwards exceed
ing great, extending his dominions both to the southward and to
the east, and to the choice and pleasant land of Judea.

10. "And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it
cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and
stamped upon them."] — And this king grew mighty and insolent;
daring to war against the God of heaven and his saints on earth:
and against some of them he prevailed accordingly ; casting to the
ground" and trampling upon those that were most noted for piety
and holiness.

1 1 . Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host,
and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of
his sanctuary was cast down.""] — Yea, he presumed to exalt him
self so far as to offer defiance to the God of heaven ; and by him
the daily sacrifice, which God hath enjoined to his people, and all
the public service required by God^s law, was taken away, and the
place of his sanctuary defiled and broken down.

1 2. " And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice
by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the
ground ; and it practised, and prospered."] — And an whole army
of apostates were given over, by reason of their great sins and
transgressions, to take part with him against the holy worship of
God ; and they spitefully opposed the truth of God, and prevailed
in their impious practices.

13. " Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said
unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision
concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation,
to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under
foot ?"] — Then I heard one angel speaking, even an angel speak
ing to Christ, the eternal Son of God, who hath all secrets ex
actly numbered, and saying to him, How long shall be the conti
nuance of the matter contained in this vision ? how long shall the
daily sacrifice be abolished and interdicted? how long shall be the
time of this desolation which our transgressions have caused? how

Q q 2

596 PARAPHRASE UPON

long shall it be that the sanctuary and the people of God shall be
trodden under foot ?

14. " And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hun
dred days ; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."] — And he said
unto me, in whose behalf this question was moved by the angel,
It shall be for the space of two thousand and three hundred na
tural days, or, six years, three months, and eighteen days ; at the
end whereof the sanctuary shall be cleansed, and God's worship
restored.

1 6. " And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai,
which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the
vision."] — And I heard the voice of Him who was the Word of
his Father speaking in the tone of a man betwixt the banks of
Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, it is the pleasure of Him
who is the God of spirits that thou make this man to understand
the vision.

17. "Understand, 0 son of man: for at the time of the end
shall be the vision."] — Understand, 0 son of man : for at the ex
piration of the time determined shall this vision be accomplished.

20. " The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the
kings of Media and Persia."] — See ver. 2 of this chapter.

The interpretation of the rest of this chapter is in the precedent
verses.

23. " And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the trans
gressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and
understanding dark sentences, shall stand up."] — And towards
the latter end of the kingdom of the Seleucidse, when the trans
gressions of the world and of my people are come to their full
height, there shall arise a king of a fierce countenance and dispo
sition, and one that is of a great wit and deep understanding, even
Antiochus Epiphanes.

24. "And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own
power : and he shall destroy wonderfully."] — And his power shall
be great ; yet shall not he do so great things by his power as by
his craft and subtlety : by both he shall destroy wonderfully, &c.

25. "And by peace shall destroy many : he shall also stand up
against the Prince of princes ; but he shall be broken without
hand."] — By fair and colourable treaties and pretences of peace
he shall destroy many : he shall exalt himself against God him
self, but he shall speed accordingly ; for he shall be brought to a

DANIEL VIII. 14.— IX. 24. 597

most miserable death, by the immediate hand of God plaguing him
for all his wickednesses.

26. "And the vision of the evening and the morning which
was told is true : wherefore shut thou up the vision ; for it shall
be for many days."] — And the vision, which concerned the con
tinuance of this calamity for the space of so many natural days as
are therein expressed, namely, 2300, is true: wherefore make
thou full account of the performance of all this vision, and keep it
close to thyself; for it will be long ere all things contained in
these several visions shall be accordingly accomplished, even no
than the space of three hundred years.

27. "And I was astonished at the vision, but none understood
it"~\ — I was secretly astonished in myself, at the consideration of
this vision ; but I kept it to myself, according to the command of
God by his angel, and did not reveal it unto any man.

IX. 2. " I Daniel understood by books the number of the
years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the pro
phet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations
of Jerusalem."] — I Daniel understood, by the relation of those
histories which were written of those aifairs and times, that the
number of years which God had in his word to Jeremiah the pro
phet predefined, for the continuance of the captivity of the Jews
and the desolation of Jerusalem, viz. seventy years, were now near
to their expiration.

14. "Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and
brought it upon us."] — Therefore the Lord hath let slip no op
portunity, nor no means, that might inflict just punishment upon
us, &c.

21. "Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man
Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being
caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening
oblation."] — While I was uttering my prayer unto God, the angel
Gabriel, whom I had seen before in my late vision, being sent im
mediately from God, came to me, and cheered me up, about the
time of the evening sacrifice.

24. " Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon
thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of
sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in ever
lasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and
to anoint the most Holy."] — Within the space of four hundred
and ninety years, which are seventy weeks of years, or seventy

598 PARAPHRASE UPON

times seven, the people of God shall have a double blessing hap
pily conferred upon them ; that is, a free and gracious remission
of sin, and everlasting righteousness, by the exhibition and by the
death and passion of Christ the Saviour ; who shall fulfil all those
prophecies which have been before of him, and shall preach to the
world that saving Gospel which is only able to give them life; and
by his eternal priesthood shall make way for his Church to the
true holy of holies, even the glorious sanctuary of heaven.

25. "Know therefore and understand, that from the going
forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto
the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and
two weeks : the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in
troublous times."] — Know therefore and understand, that from
the first year of king Cyrus, wherein his edict goes forth for the
return of the Jews to their native country and for the building of
Jerusalem, until the death and accomplishment of the great work
of the Messiah, shall be four hundred and ninety years, or seventy
weeks of years, accounting seven years to a week : which said
number, of four hundred ninety years, shall be thus reckoned
and subdivided : forty-nine of the first years, which are seven
weeks of years, shall be taken up in the building of the temple
and restoration of God's worship and service ; from thenceforth to
the last septenary of years, when the Messiah shall suffer death,
shall be four hundred thirty-four years ; in which time the city
and the Avails shall indeed be built up, but the people of the Jews
shall undergo manifold troubles and vexations.

26. " And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut
off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall
come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end
thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war deso
lations are determined."] — And after the end of the said four
hundred thirty-four years from the restitution of the temple shall
the Messiah be slain ; not for any cause that shall be found in
him, but for the sins of men, which by that redemption he shall
expiate ; neither shall he have any more part in that city ; for the
Romans shall soon after come and destroy Jerusalem and the tem
ple, and shall sweep away all before them like some violent inun
dation of a flood ; and from the beginning to the very end of this
war there shall be grievous desolations to this people.

27. " And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one
week : and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice

DANIEL IX. 23.— X. 13. 599

and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abomina
tions he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and
that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."] — And in the
last of those septenaries he shall, by preaching of the Gospel of
peace and institution of evangelical sacraments, establish and con
firm his everlasting covenant with all believers ; and in the midst
of that septenary he shall put an end to all the legal sacrifices
and rites by his one all-sufficient sacrifice made for the sins of the
world : and for the sinful city Jerusalem, he shall cause it to be
overrun with the abominable legions of the Roman victors, to the
utter desolation thereof; and shall not cease till all the judgments
which are determined unto it be fully consummated and poured
out upon that miserable city.

X. 4. " As I was by the side of the great river, which is Ilid-
dekel ;""] — I was in vision by the side of the great river Tigris ;

5. "Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a cer
tain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold
of Uphaz :"] — And, behold, the Son of God stood before me in
the form of a man clothed in pure white linen, to signify his per
fect holiness ; and his loins were girt about with a girdle of the
finest gold :

6. " His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appear
ance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and
his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words
like the voice of a multitude."] — His body was of a bright celestial
colour ; and his face glorious and shining, like the appearance of
lightning : his eyes, from which nothing can be hid, were beamy
and piercing, like flames of fire : his arms and feet were resplen
dent, like to polished brass ; to signify the pureness and unques
tionable perfection of his proceedings : and the voice of his words
was mighty and forcible.

9. " Yet heard I the voice of his words : and when I heard the
voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my
face toward the ground."] — And when I heard the dreadful voice
of his words I was cast as it were into an ecstasy, with my face
grovelling to the ground ; being for the time bereft of the use of
my senses, through astonishment.

13. "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me
one and twenty days ; but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes,
came to help me ; and I remained there with the kings of Persia."]
— But that angel, which hath the guardianship of the kingdom of

600 PARAPHRASE UPON

Persia, pleaded earnestly with me for these one and twenty days,
in a desire to retain thy people somewhat longer ; but, lo, Michael,
one of the chief of angels, who standeth out in favour of thy nation,
came to advance and to set forward the execution of my will, con
cerning my Church ; but I decreed, for holy and just causes, to
withhold my appearance from thce for a time, upon the occasion of
the affairs of the king of Persia.

I am induced to interpret this prince of the kingdom of Persia
to be an angel; because, in the same verse, and verse 21,
Michael is termed the prince of Israel; and one prince of
these spiritual governments is brought in pleading against
another ; neither is it probable that Christ is here meant by
Michael, sith it is he who in this glorious appearance speak-
eth to Daniel concerning Michael.

20. " Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee ?
and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia : and when
I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come."] — Knowest
thou wherefore I came unto thee ? even lest thou shouldst think
thyself neglected by my absence or delay ; and now, I will return
to plead with the angel of Persia for your remove ; and when I,
together with my people, am gone forth thence, the angel that is
for Greece shall come and prevail mightily against the Persian
kingdom.

21. "But I will show thee that which is noted in the scripture
of truth : and there is none that holdeth with me in these things,
but Michael your prince."] — But I will show thee the particulari
ties of these passages which are enrolled in the counsel of God's
everlasting decree ; wherein I will let thee know, that neither
the Persian nor the Grecian monarchy shall long subsist : but ye,
my Jewish people, shall not be cut off, notwithstanding the great
malice of your enemies ; neither shall ye need to fear, for Michael,
your prince and spiritual guardian, is ready at hand to attend
your safety, and to yield his service to me in your protection.

XI. i . " Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I,
stood to confirm and to strengthen him/'] — Also I, in the first
year of Darius the Mede, even I, though insensibly to men, stood
out for the confirmation of that monarchy of his.

2. " And now will I show thee the truth. Behold, there shall
stand up yet three kings in Persia ; and the fourth shall be far
richer than they all : and by his strength through his riches he
shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia."] — And now I will

DANIEL X. 20.— XL 6. 601

show tliee the true event of future things. Behold, there shall
stand up three kings successively in Persia, after this Darius, who
shall yield up his kingdom to his partner and successor, namely,
Cyrus, Cambyses' son, and Darius Hystaspes; and the fourth,
which shall be Xerxes, the son of that later Darius, shall be far
richer than they all, both through the treasures left by his father,
and his own exactions; and, in the pride and confidence of his
strength and great riches, he shall stir up all those of the east to
war against Grecia.

3. " And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with
great dominion, and do according to his will."] — But a mighty
king, even Alexander of Macedon, shall stand out against him,
and shall overthrow the Persians ; and shall rule very powerfully,
and with great freedom and absoluteness.

4. " And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken,
and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven ; and not to
his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled : for
his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those."] —
And when he shall have thus overcome, and continued his mo
narchy for seven years, his kingdom shall be broken in pieces,
and shall be divided amongst his four peers, towards all the four
coasts of heaven : divided, I say, not to his posterity, for the two
sons of Alexander the Great, namely, Alexander and Hercules,
shall shortly after die without issue, but to four of his chief
commanders : Seleucus shall have Babylon, Cassander Macedonia,
Antigonus Asia, and Ptolemy Egypt : but these kings shall not
be able to carry that sway and greatness in this subdivision of
their state which that great monarch bore before them ; for his
kingdom shall be plucked up, and parcelled out to others besido
them of his own loins.

5. " And the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his
princes ; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion."] —
Now I shall tell thee what shall befall after this division, in the in
tercourse of the affairs betwixt two of these great sharers of the
monarchy : the king of Egypt, who is the king of the south, shall
be strong and mighty ; and one other of the posterity of one of
those princes, even of Seleucus Nicanor, shall be stronger than
he, &c.

6. " And in the end of years they shall join themselves toge
ther ; for the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king
of the north to make an agreement ; but she shall not retain the

602 PARAPHRASE UPON

power of the arm ; neither shall he stand, nor his arm : but she
shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that begat
her, and he that strengthened her in these times."] — And after
some years, these two princes, the one being the king of Egypt,
or of the South, the other the king of Syria, or of the North, shall
join in a league together ; for the king of Egypt's daughter, viz.
Berenice the daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphus, shall match in
marriage with Antiochus Theos the king of Syria ; but she shall
not be able to maintain and continue either her marriage or the
league betwixt those kings; neither shall the said Antiochus
hold firm to his engagements, but the said Berenice shall be for
saken and given up by Antiochus, who shall receive again his
former wife Laodice, lately cast off, to make way to that other
wedlock with Berenice ; and afterwards, upon war hereupon
raised betwixt Ptolemeus Euergetes, the brother of Berenice and
Antiochus king of Syria, she shall, together with her son and all
her retinue, fall into the hands of Seleucus Callinicus the son of
her rival Laodice, and by him be miserably slain.

7. " But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his
estate, which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the
fortress of the king of the north."] — But out of the same stock
whence she came shall one stand up in revenge of her death, even
her brother Ptolemy Euergetes, which shall come with an army,
and enter into the fortress of the king of Syria, &c.

9. " So the king of the south shall come into his kingdom, and
shall return into his own land."] — So, when these things are thus
despatched in Syria, the king of Egypt shall come back, and re
turn into his own land.

10. " But his sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a mul
titude of great forces : and one shall certainly come, and overflow,
and pass through : then shall he return, and be stirred up even to
his fortress."] — But the sons of Seleucus Callinicus, king of Syria,
(which were Seleucus, Ceraunus, and Antiochus the Great,) not
digesting this defeat and slaughter, shall raise a new war against
the king of Egypt ; and, gathering great forces together, shall
come powerfully up to invade and recover those parts of Syria
whence they were driven ; and one of them shall so far prevail
by his strong incursions, that he shall pass through Syria and
Judea, and, having rescued them, shall return to his own for
tress.

ii." And the king of the south shall be moved with choler,

DANIEL XI. 7-16. 603

and shall come forth and fight with him, even with the king of the
north : and he shall set forth a great multitude ; but the multi
tude shall be given into his hand."] — And the king of Egypt,
Ptolemy Philopator, being herewith exceedingly moved to rage
and desire of revenge, shall come forth the third time, and fight
with the king of Syria, viz. Antiochus the Great, and shall bring
a great and mighty army against him ; the issue whereof shall
be, that the forces of Antiochus shall be delivered into the hands
of Philopator the king of Egypt, and Syria by this means again
recovered from him.

12. " And when he hath taken away the multitude, his heart
shall be lifted up ; and he shall cast down many ten thousands :
but he shall not be strengthened by it"'] —And when he hath had
this great victory, the heart of the king of Egypt shall be lifted
up with pride ; and he shall fall to a cruel persecution of God's
people, whereof he shall slay many thousands : but all this weak
ening of his pretended enemies shall be no strengthening of his
power.

13. "For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth
a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come
after certain years with a great army and with much riches."] —
For the king of Syria, Antiochus the Great, shall yet again come
upon the Egyptian with greater forces than the former ; and shall
set upon him more strongly and fiercely than before.

14. " And in those times there shall many stand up against the
king of the south : also the robbers of thy people shall exalt
themselves to establish the vision ; but they shall fall."] — And in
those days many of the neighbour nations shall take part against
the king of Egypt : also many of thy people shall turn apostates,
following Onias ; and, to fulfil that prophecy of Isaiah, (That the
altar of the Lord shall be in Egypt,) shall build a temple at
Heliopolis ; but they shall fail of their hopes, and utterly mis
carry.

15. So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount,
and take the most fenced cities : and the arms of the south shall
not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be
any strength to withstand."] — So Antiochus the Great, king of
Syria, shall come and besiege the strongest cities and forts of
Egypt, and shall take them ; and the forces of Egypt shall not be
able to stand against him.

1 6. "But he that cometh against him shall do according to his

604 PARAPHRASE UPON

own will, and none shall stand before him : and he shall stand in
the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed."] — But
the said Antiochus, coming against the Egyptian, shall do what
he pleases, and none shall so much as resist him ; and when he
hath subdued that land he shall also seize upon Judea, that glo
rious land of God's chosen people, and shall lay it waste by his
powerful army.

17. "He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of
his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do :
and he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her :
but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him."] — And
he, the said Antiochus, shall address himself and the whole power
of his kingdom, and that not without fair and plausible conditions,
to get the full and peaceable possession of Egypt; for which
cause he shall give his daughter Cleopatra to wife unto Ptolemy
Epiphanes, treating with her by corrupt counsel to destroy her
husband : but she shall not be miscarried by that wicked counsel
of her father, but shall rather favour and adhere to her husband.

1 8. " After this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and shall
take many : but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the re
proach offered by him to cease ; without his own reproach he
shall cause it to turn upon him."] — After this shall Antiochus,
king of Syria, set upon more remote nations, and shall take many
of them : but the Roman governor shall soon repress him, and
take away the reproach cast upon that state by those his vic
tories; and shall return the reproach of a foil upon him, in forcing
him to dishonourable conditions, of disclaiming any right in or
challenge to Europe for ever after.

1 9. " Then he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own
land : but he shall stumble and fall."] — Then shall he be glad to
retire himself to his own forts in Syria ; but even there he shall
miserably miscarry ; for while he shall go about a sacrilegious
pillage of his idol temple by night, the inhabitants shall fall in
great indignation upon him and his soldiers, and kill them in
the place.

20. " Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the
glory of the kingdom : but within few days he shall be destroyed,
neither in anger, nor in battle."] — After him, there shall succeed
in his room a son of his, Seleucus Philopator, or Soter ; who shall
be a great exacter upon his subjects, and a spoiler of the sacred
treasures of the temple : but within a few days after this sacri-

DANIEL XI. 17-25. 605

legious practice, ho shall be destroyed by poison, in the "hand of
Heliodorus, by the subornation of his brother Antiochus Epi-
phanes, affecting the kingdom after him.

21. " And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom
they shall not give the honour of the kingdom : but he shall come
in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries."] — And in his
place shall thereupon succeed a vile and notoriously wicked and
infamous person, even Antiochus Epiphanes ; to whom the
states of that kingdom shall not willingly yield the regiment
thereof: but he shall, by treachery and secret circumvention,
work himself into the throne, so as he shall come in without any
public opposition ; and shall by fraud and flattery possess himself
thereof.

22. " And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown
from before him, and shall be broken ; yea, also the prince of
the covenant."] — But when he is once settled in the throne, he
shall, as it were with a strong deluge, bear over and kill those that
stood against him ; yea, even his brother Seleucus, (or rather
Ptolemy Philometor,) who joined in the league with him, shall be
spoiled by him.

23. " And after the league made with him he shall work de
ceitfully : for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a
small people."] — And after the league made thus with Philometor,
he shall work deceitfully : for he shall, upon fair pretences of
friendship to his nephew, come into Egypt with a very small
troop, but such picked and able men, as by whose hands he shall
do great matters.

24. " He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of
the province ; and he shall do that which his fathers have not
done, nor his fathers'1 fathers ; he shall scatter among them the
prey, and spoil, and riches : yea, and he shall forecast his devices
against the strong holds, even for a time."] — He shall upon these
pretences enter peaceably upon those territories of Syria which
were under the command of the Egyptian ; and shall set garrison
soldiers in the chief forts, which his fathers never did before him ;
and he shall corrupt the soldiers with bribes, to make them his ;
and shall lay plots for the taking of the strongest holds of Syria,
when he shall find the time fit for his purposes.

25. " And he shall stir up his power and his courage against
the king of the south with a great army ; and the king of the
south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty

GOG PARAPHRASE UPON

army ; but he shall not stand : for they shall forecast devices
against him."] — And he shall raise great forces against the king
of Egypt his nephew, the son of his sister Cleopatra, namely,
Ptolemy Philometor ; and shall set upon him with a great army :
and the king of Egypt shall raise a powerful army to meet him ;
but shall not be able to stand before him, for his nobles shall de
vise treacherous counsels against him to betray him.

26. " Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall de
stroy him, and his army shall overflow: and many shall fall down
slain."J — Yea, his very courtiers and professed servants shall be
the means of his destruction ; and the army of Antiochus shall
defeat that of Philometor, and many of them shall be slain.

27. " And both these kings1 hearts shall be to do mischief, and
they shall speak lies at one table ; but it shall not prosper : for
yet the end shall be at the time appointed."] — And when Antio
chus shall have overrun a great part of Egypt, and this war shall
seem to have an end, and a colourable reconciliation shall be
treated ; both these kings' hearts, viz. of Syria and Egypt, shall
be secretly set to do mischief to each other : and they shall make
false professions of friendship at one table ; but their designs shall
not prosper, for the time appointed for the issue thereof is not
yet come.

28. " Then shall he return into his land with great riches ; and
his heart shall be against the holy covenant ; and he shall do ex
ploits, and return to his own land."] — Then shall Antiochus
return into his land of Syria with great riches, the spoils of
Egypt ; and his heart shall be set to oppose the ordinances and
true religion of God professed by his people ; which when he hath
bloodily persecuted, he shall return into his own land.

29. " At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward
the south ; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter."] —
At the time appointed by God. which is two years after the peace
made, when Philometor, being fallen off from him, shall have
made means to procure the aid of the Roman forces, shall Antio
chus return, and come towards Egypt ; but it shall not be with
that prosperous success that he had formerly, and shall once more
have afterwards.

30. " For the ships of Chittim shall come against him : there
fore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against
the holy covenant : so shall he do ; he shall even return, arid
have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant."] —

DANIEL XI. 26-36. 607

For the Roman sea forces, which lie in the Mediterranean sea,
shall come against him, and drive him back : therefore he shall
return Avith sorrow enough, and shall be full of indignation
against the holy religion of the Jews : he shall even return ; and
shall hold intelligence with Jason and Menelaus, and other apo
states from the true religion, to do further mischief to the Church
of God.

31. " And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute
the sanctuary of strength, and they shall take away the daily sa
crifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh deso
late."] — And the Roman governors shall aid him in this horrible
profanation of God's temple and worship ; and both he and they
shall take away that daily sacrifice which God hath appointed ;
and they shall place abominable idols in God's temple, and shall
fill the holy place with pagan soldiers, whose work is nothing but
ruin and desolation.

34. " Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a
little help : but many shall cleave to them with flatteries."] —
Now when they fall from their faith and religion, they shall have
but small helps to raise them up and recover them ; yet the ex
ample of the constancy of some worthy martyrs shall be a means
to work upon divers of them ; but very many shall through their
flatteries and plausible persuasions be drawn away.

35. "And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try
them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of
the end : because it is yet for a time appointed."] — And not only
those of the meanest rank for knowledge and understanding, but
even those which are noted and eminent, shall fall ; wherein God's
purpose is for the trial and purging of his Church, that the hypo
critical professors being removed, it may be pure and holy ; but
this trial and affliction shall not be perpetual ; it shall be till the
end of that time which God hath appointed unto it.

36. " And the king shall do according to his will ; and he shall
exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall
speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper
till the indignation be accomplished."] — And this proud Antiochus
shall do what him listeth ; and shall exalt himself, and magnify
himself above all that is called God ; and shall speak horrible
blasphemies against him that is the only true God ; and shall go
on prosperously in his wicked courses, till the full measure of

608 PARAPHRASE UPON

God's indignation be made up against him, and till the time of his
severe judgments shall come, &c.

37. "Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the
desire of women, nor regard any god : for he shall magnify him
self above all." — He shall be a perfect Antichrist ; not regarding
even those gods which his fathers worshipped, but scorning all
whatsoever deities ; and shall be void of those natural affections
which are commonly incident into men ; being only bent to fulfil
his cruel and bloody desires, without all respect, either to men or
to God himself, over whom he shall, in the pride of his heart,
exalt himself.

38. " But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces : and
a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and
silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things."] — But yet,
in the seat or temple of God in Jerusalem, he shall fashionably
honour Jupiter Olympus, a Grecian god, whom his fathers knew
not, as being only acquainted with the Syrian deities ; him, I say, he
shall honour with offerings of gold and silver and precious stones
and pleasant things.

39. " Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange
god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory : and he
shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for
gain."] — Thus shall he do in the most strong holds of Judea ;
setting up the image and worship of this strange god in them all :
and those base persons whom he shall affect he shall advance to
great glory ; and shall cause them to rule over many better than
themselves ; and shall share the land of Judea amongst them for
a reward of their unworthy service.

40. " And at the time of the end shall the king of the south
push at him : and the king of the north shall come against him
like a whirlwind, with chariots."] — And at the time foreappointed
by God, which shall be two years after the setting up of this
idolatry in Judea, shall the king of Egypt make head against this
Antiochus king of Syria, and the king of Syria shall come against
him like a whirlwind, &c.

41. " He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many
countries shall be overthrown."] — And having overrun Egypt, he
shall again enter into the goodly land of Judea, and many coun
tries shall be wasted by him, &c.

43. " And the Ethiopians shall be at his steps."] — And the

DAMEL XI. 37.— XII. 2. 609

Ethiopians shall submit themselves to him, and follow him in his
wars.

44. " But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall
trouble him : therefore he shall go forth with great fury to
destroy, and utterly to make away many."] — But tidings shall
come to him from the east, which shall trouble him, viz. that the
Parthians have invaded his coast ; and so also from the north of
Egypt, where he shall then be, that the Jews are endeavouring a
revolt from him : therefore he shall go forth of Egypt with much
fury, and revengeful resolutions to destroy many.

45. " And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between
the seas in the glorious holy mountain ; yet he shall come to his
end, and none shall help him."] — And he shall resolve to settle
his palace in Judea, between the Mediterranean and the Dead
sea, even in the glorious holy mountain of Sion ; yet he shall be
defeated, and brought at last to his end ; and when he shall have
diverted his forces against the Persian, he shall be shamefully
foiled, and none shall help him.

XII. i. " And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great
prince which standeth for the children of thy people : and there
shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a
nation even to that same time : and at that time thy people shall
be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book."]
— And at that time, when Antiochus shall have left his affairs in
Judea together with his son to the charge of Lysias, and shall
go himself upon his expedition against the Parthians, then shall
Michael stand up, that great archangel which standeth for the
children of thy people, very seasonably, in respect of the great
trouble and affliction of that nation ; which shall have been so
great as never was since there was a people upon earth : and at
that time shall be begun the happy deliverance of thy people,
even of every of my elect servants, whose names are written in
the Book of Life.

2. " And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlast
ing contempt."] — But the full deliverance of all my chosen ones,
which is figured by that other, shall be only accomplished in the
day of their final resurrection : wherein all flesh shall arise from
their graves, though to different and contrary ends ; for some
shall rise to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting
confusion.

BP. HALL, VOL. III. B r

610 PARAPHRASE UPON

3. " Arid they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars
for ever and ever."] — And they that are spiritually wise to know
God and themselves, shall have meet proportion of glory, and
shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; but those which
are the means to convert and save others shall be yet more glo
rious, and shall shine as the stars in that firmament for ever.

4. " But thou, 0 Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the
book, even to the time of the end : many shall run to and fro, and
knowledge shall be increased."] — But thou, 0 Daniel, keep thou
these words to thyself; record them safely, but when thou hast
done, seal them up till the determined time, when they shall be
communicated to the world : at which time many shall take pains
to be informed of my truth and the state of my Church, and
knowledge shall be increased.

5. " Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two,
the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on
that side of the bank of the river."] — Then I Daniel looked,
and, behold, there stood two other angels by the side of the bank
of the river Tigris, one on the one side, and the other on the
other side.

6. " And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon
the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these
wonders?'1] — And the one of them, as desiring to look into these
great mysteries, said to Christ, the great Angel of the Covenant,
who was the man clothed in linen, and who stood upon the waters
by Tigris all this while, How long shall it be to the end of all
these wonderful events ?

7. " And I heard the man clothed in linen, which ivas upon
the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his
left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that
it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have
accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these
things shall be finished."] — And I heard Christ, the Eternal Son
of God, to answer him again ; who, lifting up both his hands to
wards heaven, the place of his throne, sware by himself, and his
Eternal Father, and Blessed Spirit, that this calamity of his
Church shall be but short, even for the space of only three years
and some few days ; after which, the true worship of God, which
shall be defaced at Jerusalem, shall be restored ; and at the end
whereof, the hostile power of Antiochus, wherewith God's people

DANIEL XII. 3- 1 2. 611

shall have been annoyed and grievously vexed, shall be scattered
and utterly defeated.

8. " And 1 heard, but I understood not : then said I, 0 my
Lord, what shall be the end of these things?"'] — And I Daniel
heard, but I did not distinctly and clearly enough understand,
the answer that was given : then I besought Christ, the Word of
his Father, that he would be pleased to give me a more clear and
full understanding of these things.

9. " And he said, Go thy way, Daniel : for the words are
closed up and sealed till the time of the end."] — And he said, Go
thy ways, Daniel ; and content thyself with so much as is already
revealed unto thee : for the particularities of these prophecies
are not to be fully conceived, till the time of the fulfilling of
them.

10. " Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but
the wicked shall do wickedly : and none of the wicked shall
understand ; but the wise shall understand.1'] — In the mean time,
know that this general affliction, which shall befall my Church,
shall have different issues ; for many, who are God^s elect, shall
be bettered thereby, and made more holy and perfect ; but others
again shall rather be hardened in their wickedness : and none of
the wicked shall regard either the judgments or mercies of God,
or take heed to these promises or threatenings ; but the godly
wise will lay both of them to heart accordingly.

1 1. "And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken
away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there
shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days."] — And
from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away by
Antiochus Epiphanes, and that abominable army of his shall seize
upon the temple and all the holds of Judea, until the time that
the same Antiochus shall be forced to yield to and confirm the re
formation made by Judas Maccabeus, shall be three years, seven
months, and thirteen days ; which shall be seven months and three
days after the banishing of that shameful idolatry of Antiochus,
and the beginnings of his happy restoration of God's true wor
ship.

12. "Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand
three hundred and five and thirty days."] — Yet even after this
blessing there is another worth your expecting, which is the death
of this cruel tyrant, Epiphanes, that shall fall about two months
after this later period : happy is he, therefore, that waiteth pa-

612 PARAPHRASE UPON DANIEL XII. 13.

tiently upon God, and lives to see this effected, at the end of
three years and about nine months from the first erection of that
his detestable idolatry.

13. " But go thou thy way till the end be : for thou shalt rest,
and stand in thy lot at the end of the days."] — But go thou thy
way, and rest in peace ; contenting thyself with so much as is re
vealed to thee : and quietly hold that station wherein God hath
placed thee, in an humble and silent expectation of these events,
till the very end of thy days.

END OF VOL. III.